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African American Breaking News and OpinionTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:40:55 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/http://0.gravatar.com/blavatar/4500a32c092a288ae59fc0579dce77b3?s=96&d=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngtheGriohttp://thegrio.com
Homeless man stops rape attempt in northwest D.C.http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/homeless-man-stops-rape/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/homeless-man-stops-rape/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:40:36 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250605]]>A recently homeless man in Washington, D.C., says he was just looking for a place to sleep when he witnessed a man attempting to rape a woman and knew he had to intervene.

“Even though I’m going through hard times, God put in me in a place where I could help,” Ketrell Ferguson told NBC Washington. “I was at the right place at right time.”

The suspect, Alemen Gonzalo, allegedly attempted to pay a woman for sex, but when she refused, he tried to rape her, said authorities.

Ferguson said that he had family members who had been raped and knew he could not just stand by. He grabbed a stick and half of a brick and approached the scene.

“As soon as he lifted his head up, I smacked him with the stick hard as I could in his head,” Ferguson said. “He fell off the lady, stumbled and I smacked him again and I just kept smacking him with the stick as hard as I could.”

Gonzalo, 23, was found at around 4 a.m. not far away from the scene, bleeding from the head. He has since been charged with assault as well as with the intent to commit first-degree sexual abuse.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/homeless-man-stops-rape/feed/0Homeless man stops rapethegrio4-foot bodybuilder finds love with 6-foot transgender womanhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/4-foot-bodybuilder-6-foot-transgender-woman/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/4-foot-bodybuilder-6-foot-transgender-woman/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:21:42 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250553]]>Proving there is someone for everyone, a London bodybuilder has found love with a woman that is nearly two-feet taller than him.

Anton Kraft stands at 4-foot-tall and says he will not date a woman who is not at least a foot taller than him, reports the New York Post.

Kraft has never been one to let his size stop him from doing what he wants, and the bodybuilder can bench press 500 pounds.

“Some people say … that I want to do something that I am not built for, to prove something,” the 52-year-old bodybuilder said. “But I believe there’s only one winner — second is first loser.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/4-foot-bodybuilder-6-foot-transgender-woman/feed/0couplethegrioMore protections needed to reduce payday lending’s crippling effect on African-Americanshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/payday-lending-consumer-protections/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/payday-lending-consumer-protections/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 20:14:50 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250606]]>Earlier this month, I had the privilege of traveling with the President to Selma, Alabama, to commemorate events that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As we walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the footsteps of heroes like Rep. John Lewis and other brave men and women who put their lives on the line for freedom 50 years ago, I was struck by how far we’ve come as a nation.

When the President traveled back to Alabama last week, he continued drawing attention to the concerns of the middle class and working Americans, this time focusing on the needs of consumers trapped by debt that threatens their ability to prosper. Those debt burdens often affect communities that face the greatest economic hardships; and quite often, they are communities of color.

The statistics speak for themselves. For example, according to a study by The Pew Charitable Trusts, twelve percent of African-Americans have taken out a payday loan, compared to six percent of Hispanics and four percent of whites. Many payday loans trap borrowers in a cycle of debt; eighty percent are rolled over or followed by another loan within fourteen days.

But the disparities don’t stop there. When purchasing a car, borrowers of color receive worse pricing and are nearly twice as likely to be sold multiple add-on products. The statistics for mortgage lending are equally as troubling. Academic studies routinely find evidence of higher pricing for blacks and Hispanics in the mortgage market, which in turn challenges their opportunities for wealth building.

The President and First Lady have often been candid about the challenges they faced to repay their student loans, which they only paid off in 2004. They are not alone; more than four out of five African-American college graduates have to borrow to pay for college and carry nearly 15 percent more debt than their peers.

Fifty years after the march in Selma, we have come a long way, but we still have more work to do. That’s why, five years ago, we passed historic Wall Street reform and, as part of that reform, created the independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with the sole mission of looking out for consumers.

Under Director Richard Cordray, the CFPB has taken steps to eliminate unfair, deceptive and abusive practices in the market for financial products and services. Since its creation, through enforcement actions, the CFPB has returned $5.3 billion to more than 15 million consumers.

Alongside the CFPB’s efforts, the Administration continues fighting to protect consumers. Last month, the President announced steps to crack down on backdoor payments and hidden fees that incentivize retirement advisers to recommend bad investments with high costs and low returns.

And this month, the President rolled out a Student Aid Bill of Rights and signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Education and other agencies to do more to help borrowers afford their monthly student loan payments.

As the President has said, our economy works best when it’s working for everyone. By putting in place protections that not only aid communities of color but all Americans, our country will continue to thrive and grow.

Broderick Johnson is Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary. He also serves as the Chair of the White House Task Force on My Brother’s Keeper.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/payday-lending-consumer-protections/feed/0PaydaythegrioPolitical correctness, not bigotry, to blame for Trevor Noah’s Twitter criticshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/trevor-noah-twitter-comedian/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/trevor-noah-twitter-comedian/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 19:45:44 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250592]]>Trevor Noah, the biracial South African comedian who was recently tapped to replace Jon Stewart on The Daily Show is the latest to come under fire for controversial “bigoted” and offensive remarks.

It seems like every week we hear about someone saying hateful things in an email, in a tweet, a recorded conversation or video. Many of these recent slips of the tongue were never intended for public consumption – Oklahoma University Chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, LA Clippers former owner Donald Sterling, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper – to name a few. Millenial Wonder Woman, Lena Dunham recently came under fire for supposed anti-Semitic comments in her ‘Dog or Jewish Boyfriend’ Quiz in New Yorker magazine.

Noah’s controversy involves Twitter. Over the course of the last five years or so, Noah has posted some tweets that has over the past 24 hours caused significantly more than 140 characters to question his character:

Manchester United is like a white girl. Heavy upfront but lacking in the back.

As you can see, Noah is an equal opportunity offender, but the difference is that he is a comedian. If there is any doubt about this then just check out his bio line on Twitter – “Comedian from South Africa. I was in the crowd when Rafiki held Simba over the edge of the cliff, like an African Michael Jackson.”

It’s his job to make light of the things that we take seriously, to make us uncomfortable, to make us laugh at ourselves and others and maybe even provide a platform for discussion among and between different groups about the sensitive stereotypical land mines that occupy the line of demarcation between groups that can cause collateral damage and casualties.

Is this a case of people trying to find a justifiable reason to keep Comedy Central from replacing two of the most powerful cultural figures in television, Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart with black men – Larry Wilmore and Trevor Noah respectively?

In this case it doesn’t really matter because the attack is being mounted under the banner of political correctness which is unfounded here because Noah is who we thought he was – a comedian. Have we come to the point where we are going to censor comedians and demand that they toe the line of political correctness? If so we are going to miss out on a perfect medium for dealing with all forms of bigotry.

Comedy is a powerful art form. One thing that makes comedy so powerful is the fact that it connects us to other human beings in ways that we thought we were unique. How many times have you heard a comedian tell a story about some mundane embarrassing unique aspect of their lives and as the comedian gets further and further into the story you realize that you’ve experienced the exact same thing yourself.

If you were in a live audience at the time there was probably a magical moment when you and everyone else there realized that the comedian had just connected you with an entire group of diverse people who were just like you in an area of your life that you thought was truly unique.

Almost every human being holds stereotypical, offensive or bigoted views of “others”. Stereotypes are just larger than life characterizations of some characteristic or trait of a group that is grounded in some truth. The problem for our society is when people take the stereotype to be the gospel truth and act accordingly.

Feeling a certain way about an individual or a group is one thing but acting on that feeling is quite another. Comedy can help debunk the universality of the myth of the stereotype through irony and absurdity, but you have to be willing to sometimes strap in for an uncomfortable and often bumpy ride.

Comedy Central’s brand of satirical news is a very persuasive and powerful medium. Studies have shown that more and more young people get their news from satirical shows like The Daily Show. So it would seem that the above makes a good case for the new host of The Daily Show not to be one who has posted or posts politically incorrect tweets. Quite the contrary.

The new host needs to be free to make fun and light of as many of the -ism’s that he can and sometimes make us all uncomfortable in the process. And, it will be even more powerful if that host is representative of as many “other” categories as possible.

His mom is half-Jewish by the way. Noah’s brand of humor when used in the proper context will keep moving us closer to the overall goal of disarming the stereotype arsenal and helping us move towards the peaceful place of understanding that as humans we are more alike than we are different. Political correctness often only helps keep up the walls of difference.

If we as black folks want to stand up for Trevor Noah and his “right” to be an equal opportunity offender in the name of comedy, which I do by the way, then we must also realize that the equal opportunity comedy offender highway is a two way street.

We can’t have it both ways. We can’t call for the heads of white comedians who make stereotypical black jokes and even use the n-word on one hand and then criticize those calling for Trevor Noah’s head on the other hand.

That’s not to say that some of the motivations for some people calling for a pound of Noah’s flesh from Comedy Central is not rooted in race. It may very well be, but in this case we have to deal with the issues at face value.

The best defense for Noah is an argument against political correctness not an argument that the only reason they’re criticizing his tweets is because “they” don’t want another black man to replace an outgoing white anchor on the network.

If your goal is to make a cogent argument on behalf of Mr. Noah you must make a winning argument.

Political correctness is to blame not racism!

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/trevor-noah-twitter-comedian/feed/0Trevor-NoahthegrioZoë Kravitz on eating disorder: ‘I Felt Pressured’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/zoe-kravitz-on-eating-disorder-i-felt-pressured/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/zoe-kravitz-on-eating-disorder-i-felt-pressured/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 18:41:57 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250580]]>Zoë Kravitz is the daughter of a rock icon and a legendary teenage tv star — yet her life hasn’t always been as charmed as you’d think.

In the April/May cover of Complex, she talks about her battle with anorexia and bulimia as a teen and the trappings of growing up with such widely idolized parents.

She tells Complex:

“I had a really hard time when I was 16, 17, 18. I started with the eating disorder in high school….” She trails off at this, and puts her hand to the side of her face, rubbing her right ear, and then dials back to the beginning of that thought: “Just [a hard time] loving myself.”

In high school, she became anorexic and bulimic—“awful diseases” she’d battle to various degrees until the last two or so years. And here, she’s willing to acknowledge to a certain degree her pedigree playing a darker kind of role: “I think it was part of being a woman, and being surrounded by [fame],” she explains, before backtracking: “I don’t think it was about the fame, but I think it was definitely about being around that world, seeing that world. I felt pressured.”

Kravitz also shares that her mom, Lisa Bonet, was worried she might slip into old habits while shooting The Road Within in which she played young woman battling anorexia:

“It was f****d up, man,” she sighs. “You could see my rib cage. I was just trying to lose more weight for the film but I couldn’t see: You’re there. Stop. It was scary.” She got sick after filming wrapped. She didn’t get her period regularly because she was too malnourished. Her immune system shut down, her thyroid was thrown off. Recovering from the brutal shoot, she wasn’t receptive to praises from friends who were happy she was gaining weight, either. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to gain weight,’ as opposed to being like, ‘Good, I’m a normal human being.

“My mother’s a…,” she says, hesitating, “…beautiful woman, and I think, in some way, I felt intimidated by that sometimes.” Also: “My dad dated a lot of supermodels,” she laughs.

“Everyone sees themselves in some weird, obscure way.” She says her mom also struggles with her own insecurities. “People meet her and don’t know what to do with themselves, but”—and here, she takes care to emphasize with conviction—“she doesn’t know how f*****g cool she is. Or what she means to the rest of the world.”

To read even more from Kravitz’s candid new interview, check out the latest issue of Complex.

Jefferson had stabbed him with a pen after she started yelling about his salsa intake, NBC News reports.

She then tried to knock over his TV, and he had to catch it from falling, the police report said. As he watched TV, Jefferson retrieved a small kitchen knife and stabbed Buckner in the stomach, according to the report.

Jefferson fled the scene before police arrived but she was later apprehended on an interstate highway. After her arrest, Jefferson told detectives that she had stabbed her boyfriend because “she wanted to leave,” according to the report. She has been charged with felonious assault and criminal damaging, police said.

Jefferson’s boyfriend was taken to a local medical facility with non-life-threatening injuries.

A 35-year-old mother has been charged with murder after she allegedly took her 20-month-old son into a bathroom at a New York City restaurant and killed him.

The mother, identified as Latisha Fisher, was seen by another woman who walked into the bathroom at 5 Boro Burger in Midtown and saw Fisher with her hand over the child’s mouth, reports the NY Daily News.

“I put my hand over his mouth to put him to sleep,” Fisher said to the woman, according to police.

Fisher then allegedly locked herself in the bathroom, and employees became concerned. Workers finally forced their way inside to find the child unconscious and foaming at the mouth. Restaurant staff reportedly tried to perform CPR, but Fisher shooed them away.

Afterward, Fisher “blamed the devil,” according to police.

Police who arrived at the scene were shocked and sickened.

“I would describe her as soulless,” a law enforcement official said. “She put her hand over his mouth and smothered him.”

Fisher’s neighbors described her as having a bit of a violent streak, with one neighbor recounting a time she stabbed another family member. Other neighbors claimed an older child was removed from Fisher’s custody already.

Neighbor Carolyn Lawson, 47, said, “She needs help. It doesn’t make sense. I think she was on medication for whatever problem she had, but I’m assuming she wasn’t taking her meds.”

The Administration for Children’s Services for the city would not say if they had been involved or comment on the possible other child who was removed.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/mother-murder-son-restaurant-bathroom/feed/0Mom sonthegrioRussell Crowe says Michael Jackson prank called him for years, the two never methttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/russell-crowe-says-michael-jackson-prank-called-him-for-years-the-two-never-met/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/russell-crowe-says-michael-jackson-prank-called-him-for-years-the-two-never-met/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:52:32 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250520]]>

Russell Crowe says that, for years, he would get prank calls from Michael Jackson, even though the two had never met in person.

Crowe said that the calls went on for “two or three f*****g years,” and that the King of Pop always seemed to be able to find out what pseudonym Crow was staying under in any given hotel.

The calls were generally joking, and Crowe gave one example: “Is Mr. Wall there? Is Mrs. Wall there? Are there any Walls there? Then what’s holding the roof up? Ha ha.”

Crowe did say that, occasionally, Jackson would call him and, in his best authoritative voice, inform him that there was an emergency and he needed to leave the building. When Crowe would ask who was on the other line, the response would be: “Do not worry Russell, just kidding, this is Michael.”

Crowe also related the story of the 2001 Oscars, in which he was apparently targeted by terrorists who wanted to kidnap him and lived with a large FBI presence for some time. He had 16 security guards at the Golden Globes.

“I don’t even know why. They wouldn’t give me any details. And of course, people were like: ‘Look at him, he thinks he’s f******g Elvis.’ And then one day they just weren’t there any more,” he recalled, noting that he still does not know what the fuss was all about, not entirely, even after over a decade.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/russell-crowe-says-michael-jackson-prank-called-him-for-years-the-two-never-met/feed/0Russell-Crowe-Michael-JacksonthegrioFuneral procession keeps going after body falls from coffinhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/funeral-procession-body-falls-coffin/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/funeral-procession-body-falls-coffin/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 15:19:32 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250518]]>A video was uploaded to LiveLeak on Sunday and has since been uploaded to YouTube showing the moment a body fell from its coffin during a funeral procession – and the pallbearers just kept walking.

According to the New York Daily News, the video, which was shot somewhere in Indonesia, shows the body wrapped in white cloth apparently falling through the bottom of the casket.

Mourners who were paying their respects from the sides of the street can be heard screaming, seemingly terrified.

Watch the horrific moment unfold below:

Someone was finally able to get the pallbearers’ attention and alert them to what had happened, and they went back to retrieve the body. They scooped the body back into the coffin and then continued with the procession.

Attorney Bret Grote said Monday that his client is in the critical care unit of a Pennsylvania hospital.

Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther serving life in prison for the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner. His conviction was upheld through years of appeals, but he has gained international support for his claim that he’s the victim of a racist justice system.

Watch a full report on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s condition below:

Grote says neither he nor Abu-Jamal’s brother, Keith Cook, have been allowed in to see him.

Prison officials won’t comment on inmate medical conditions or hospitalizations. A spokesman for Pottsville’s Schuylkill Medical Center says he had no information about Abu-Jamal.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/mumia-abu-jamal-critical-care-hospital/feed/0Mumia-Abu-JamalthegrioJay-Z’s TIDAL: How could a music genius become so tone deaf?http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/jay-z-tidal-tone-deaf/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/jay-z-tidal-tone-deaf/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 14:23:10 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250534I watched a video where Jay-Z held a meeting with some of the biggest names in music. Madonna, Beyonce, Kanye, Daft Punk, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and so many more were in the same room for this montage of awesome. Alicia …]]>I watched a video where Jay-Z held a meeting with some of the biggest names in music. Madonna, Beyonce, Kanye, Daft Punk, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and so many more were in the same room for this montage of awesome. Alicia Keys and Usher were on Skype. AW SNAP! In the 2-minute video, Jay-Z said they were going to be changing the world and mentioned something named TIDAL. I was very impressed, because I just knew that anything that involved the collaboration of so many icons had to be epic and groundbreaking. I didn’t know what TIDAL was, but I was inspired.

And then I learned what TIDAL was, and my enthusiasm was dropkicked through the window. Long story short, it’s an expensive Spotify that is majority owned by the artists.

Oh. Well that was more anti-climactic than the one-minute man that Missy rapped about.

How in the hell did Jay-Z get all those people in one room at same time? I am hella impressed that they were all able to align their schedules to make that happen. What voodoo did they do to find one day in their crazy lives to get together for a long meeting? Me and four of my friends can’t even fix our schedule to go to brunch. It once took us an entire year to plan a trip to our favorite restaurant in Chicago. ONE. YEAR.

What will make people sign up for this new streaming service? They have no free plan, and they offer two tiers: $10 a month (which will provide regular streaming) and $20 a month (for CD quality losslessness I guess). If what it’s offering at the $20 level is making Kanye’s bad singing clearer in my headphones, then I might ask them to pay ME some money.

I just don’t see what will make me drop that money when I’m already using Spotify for free. In terms of supporting music I love, I’m perfectly fine buying what I really like from iTunes and listening to the rest on YouTube. Don’t listen to me, though. I still mostly listen to 90s R&B, so I’m probably not the target for this.

Why did they overpromise and underdeliver? That trailer made this project sound deeper than rap. Shoutout to whoever the director of it was, because the power of storytelling is the ability to use 2 minutes to trick people into thinking what you’re working on is going to actually make the Earth move.

Is this the real solution to music’s business model problem? It’s no secret that the music business cheats artists at times. However, what does another platform that competes with multiple others that already exist really do to transform that? This isn’t rhetorical. I actually want to know.

If they could get ALL those powerhouses in one room for this, can they get them in a room to address social justice issues? Do you understand the amount of power and money that was in the room for that TIDAL meetup? The things they could do if they actually really put their collective power behind an actual world-changing initiative.

I should be careful what I ask for, because some of our favorite celebrities have lost touch (or never even had it) with the state of affairs (See: Raven Symone). Some of them are so foolish that they think their wealth supercedes their Blackness so they identify more with rich than color. Maybe I should be careful what I ask for, because they might get together to do some backwards shit like fund prisons or give to lobbyists who want to militarize police. We might be wishing for too much from them. In the NYTimes article about TIDAL, Jay-Z even said:

“Water is free. Music is $6 but no one wants to pay for music. You should drink free water from the tap — it’s a beautiful thing. And if you want to hear the most beautiful song, then support the artist.”

Sir, water is actually not free. In fact, there are politicians who are currently working on privatizing it because they don’t think people have a right to drinking water. There are countries where people do not have access to clean water. The point is: Jay-Z’s already wrong, and he’s just starting. So yeah, maybe I shouldn’t ask for them to plug into social activism. Although I am a firm believer of using your platform for the Greater Good, I need people to also be slightly informed before speaking up. I might be asking for too much.

Rihanna at the TIDAL launch (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

What were the artists signing at the TIDAL press conference? Apparently it was some declaration, but we aren’t privy to what they were declaring. Also, why was it all that dramatic? Bless their hearts. They really tried to sell it hard to the public, as they stand on a stage, collectively worth billions of dollars and feeling underappreciated for their art.

Why was Rihanna dressed like head of the church usher board for the signing?The tweed lilac suit with the pin curls sitting atop of her head made me want to ask her if she got any strawberry candy in her purse. Did she have on matching lilac dyeable slingbacks to make the outfit really right? I must know.

My friend Rockfish Monroe wraps it all up neatly with:

“Can we talk about jacking social justice tactics to push a service backed by already really rich people? This ain’t philanthropy; this a venture to make money and these tactics feel gross. It reeks of greed and being out of touch with your customers. You want 1 million paying $20/month or 100 million paying $8/month? It’s just extreme capitalism asking the consumer for another dime when their fight is with labels. It just doesn’t feel good or pure or about the art.”

Take Our Poll]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/jay-z-tidal-tone-deaf/feed/0jay-z-tidaldwilson1911Rihanna at the TIDAL launch (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation)Why the arrests of African-American ISIS suspects deserve more scrutinyhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/arrest-african-american-isis-suspects/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/arrest-african-american-isis-suspects/#commentsTue, 31 Mar 2015 11:50:25 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250512Last Tuesday, two more African-American men were arrested on federal terrorism charges for trying to join ISIS. The FBI arrested Hasan Edmonds, 22, a member of the Illinois National Guard, and his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, for allegedly attempting …]]>Last Tuesday, two more African-American men were arrested on federal terrorism charges for trying to join ISIS. The FBI arrested Hasan Edmonds, 22, a member of the Illinois National Guard, and his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, for allegedly attempting to stage terror attacks in the U.S. and join the terror group ISIS.

News of the arrests comes a week after Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, an Air Force veteran originally from New Jersey, was indicted by federal authorities for allegedly attempting to travel to Turkey to join ISIS and providing material support to the organization. In the past 18 months, 30 people have been charged with enlisting with or attempting to join terrorist organizations. And in February, three immigrants from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in central Asia were charged with conspiracy in Brooklyn, New York, and Florida in connection with failed attempts to join ISIS. The trio allegedly discussed attacking President Obama and Coney Island.

These and other cases suggest that Muslim Americans, particularly black Americans, suddenly have developed an interest in joining ISIS. Surely, successive stories of men plotting to launch attacks on American soil may conjure images of a growing national security problem. However, there is a need for scrutiny more here — by the public and by the media — when examining these cases.

In the war on terror, like the war on drugs, government agencies must justify their existence in order to continue their funding. In some cases, this means creating their own Hollywood production and enlisting actors, both voluntary and unwitting, to take part in the performance. It all speaks to the role of the FBI in entrapping suspects in terror plots the bureau itself manufactures through the aid of well-paid informants and agents provocateurs. This is made possible by an exaggerated fear of terror, rampant Islamophobia in American society, the exploitation of the poor, and a legacy of government surveillance in communities of color that was perfected during the COINTELPRO program of the 1950s through 1970s.

As a continuation of the spying campaign against Marcus Garvey and other civil rights leaders decades earlier, J. Edgar Hoover established COINTELPRO. The purpose of the program was to monitor and neutralize domestic movements and groups that were deemed subversive and a threat to national security, including Communists, leftwing and civil rights groups and the Ku Klux Klan.

One FBI document said COINTELPRO would “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters, and to counter their propensity for violence and civil disorder.” Hoover wanted to “prevent the rise of a black messiah” and targeted figures such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and groups such as the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Christian Leadership Conference.

The FBI employed informants and agents provocateurs in a key role in disrupting organizations from within, exerting influence and inciting violence, including assassinations. In 1967, the FBI established a “Ghetto Informant Program,” which at its height employed 7,000 informants to attend meetings of “extremists” and identify black bookstores and others who were distributing “extremist literature.” COINTELPRO targeted not only groups such as the Panthers for infiltration but all Black Student Unions. As the nonprofit group Political Research Associates reported, “A combination of informant infiltration, other Bureau surveillance methods, and close cooperation with local police allowed the state’s repressive forces to practically encircle the black activist community in a 24 hour dragnet.”

Today, as was the case in recent arrests, the FBI continues its use of informants under the war on terror. As Stephen Salisbury reported in Salon in 2010, many so-called failed terror plots were pre-manufactured by the government, their narratives written ahead of time so that the investigators and prosecutors could take credit for the failure of the ineptly planned plots.

“The Liberty City Seven, the Fort Dix Six, the Detroit Ummah Conspiracy, the Newburgh Four — each has had their fear-filled day in the sun. None of these plots ever came close to happening. How could they?” Salisbury asked. “All were bogus from the get-go: money to buy missiles or cell phones or shoes and fancy duds — provided by the authorities; plans for how to use the missiles and bombs and cell phones — provided by authorities; cars for transport and demolition — issued by the authorities; facilities for carrying out the transactions — leased by those same authorities.”

A number of homegrown terrorism stings in recent years have involved poor black men in the inner city who were entrapped by informants with criminal backgrounds — unsavory conmen and habitual liars who promised suspects incentives such as money, trips or food. According to PBS Frontline, the intelligence community uses the acronym M.I.C.E. to classify these incentives: “Money (a bribe), Ideology (sympathizing with an insider), Compromise (blackmail or reduced jail time) or Ego (medals, plaques).”

For example, the two informants in the 2006 Liberty City Seven case — who were of Mideast origin and posed as al Qaeda operatives — received over $130,000 from the feds. The informants “infiltrated” a group of poor, nearly homeless black men in a low income community of Miami who were supposedly ready to “wage a full ground war on the United States” and blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago in exchange for $50,000 and supplies. The defendants were tried three times before they were convicted.

Similarly, Shahed Hussain, the Pakistani informant in the 2009 Newburgh Four sting, lured unemployed black ex-offenders on the margins in an impoverished New York town with promises of $250,000. Hussain began working with the FBI after being arrested for supplying illegal drivers licenses to recent immigrants. The prosecution’s only witness, he was paid $66,000 by the FBI. Further, posing as a representative of Osama bin Laden, Hussain convinced the suspects to leave bombs at two New York City synagogues — fake bombs created by the government — and participate in a missile attack at a National Guard air base.

The four men were convicted and sentenced to 25 years. Nevertheless, the judge said in her decision that there was “something decidedly troubling about the government’s behavior.… I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it, and brought it to fruition.”

“None of these brothers got jobs. There’s three of us with no jobs,” said James Cromitie, the alleged ringleader, to Hussain in a secretly taped conversation. “But actually, how do you think we feel? We’re getting ready to do all this stuff, we ain’t got no money in our pocket. How do you think we feel? You know? How do you think they feel?”

Members of the African-American and Muslim communities attribute the targeting, monitoring and harassment of Muslim Americans, their mosques and institutions to Islamophobia.

“I remember years ago when we used to go after people we said were Communists. Then we went after gang members during the whole war on drugs. And that led literally to the incarceration of a whole generation of African-American men. So ok, now Muslims are the new thing,” said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). Speaking in the HBO documentary The Newburgh Sting, Ellison added: “When I was elected, I was the first Muslim to ever be elected to Congress. And we experienced a torrent of invective and hate and all kind of suspicion and insult. And when you channel a vast array of resources towards a particular community, no doubt you’re gonna get some bad actors, because there are bad actors in every community.”

“I feel very betrayed personally because I was one of the most verbal proponents of strengthening a relationship with the FBI,” said Hussam Ayloush, the Los Angeles director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim American civil rights organization. Ayloush appeared in Informants, an Al Jazeera documentary on the shadowy figures who spy for the FBI. “We expect that the FBI is there to protect us, to protect our community from criminals, not to go and hire criminals to actually come into our mosques and put your youth at risk.”

While the Muslim American community has been well-positioned to partner with law enforcement to fight real crime, the authorities have broken trust and burned bridges. “You can’t really trust the FBI anymore. I mean period, you can’t trust the FBI anymore,” said Sheikh Yassir Fazaga of the Orange County Islamic Foundation in Mission Viejo, California. “In my own sermons I would tell my community members to please cooperate with the law. However when it comes to the FBI, the less you talk, the more you walk.”

This is why we should look at all of these homegrown terror cases and ask a lot more questions.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/31/arrest-african-american-isis-suspects/feed/0african-american-isis-suspectsdavidlove123NBC announces ‘The Wiz’ as next live musicalhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/nbc-announces-the-wiz-as-next-live-musical/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/nbc-announces-the-wiz-as-next-live-musical/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 23:25:46 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250507]]>Today, NBC announced that The Wiz will be its next live musical performance — with Cirque du Soleil collaborating on the project with plans to bring the show to Broadway in 2016.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

NBC’s The Wiz, set for Thursday, Dec. 3, will again be executive produced by Sound of Music and Peter Panduo Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, with Tony-winning director Kenny Leon attached to direct both the live event as well as the Broadway revival in 2016-17. Tony winner and Broadway icon Harvey Fierstein will contribute new material to the original book by William F. Brown and work alongside Zadan, Meron and Leon. Leon won a 2014 Tony Award for directing A Raisin in the Sun, and earned a nomination for Fences. Fierstein, as a writer, won Tonys for La Cage Aux Folles and Torch Song Trilogy. He’s also written books for musical hits including Kinky Boots and Newsies. As an actor, he’s won Tonys for best actor in a musical (Hairspray) and best actor in a play (Torch Song).

“We love this yearly tradition and we’re more excited than ever to not only bring another Broadway musical to America’s living rooms, but also see it land on Broadway as well,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said. “Cirque’s incredible imagination will help bring the fantasy world of Oz vividly to life and give this great show a modern spin on the age-old story we all love.”

33-year-old Purvi Patel was arrested in 2013 after she went to the emergency room and admitted to having a miscarriage.

Patel arrived at the hospital to be treated for heavy bleeding. Although she denied being pregnant at first, she finally told the staff that she had miscarried and had placed the fetus, which she believed was dead, in a dumpster on her way to the hospital.

“I assumed because the baby was dead there was nothing to do,” Patel later said to law enforcement. “I’ve never been in this situation. I’ve never been pregnant before.”

Patel’s pregnancy occurred as a result of a sexual relationship between Patel and a married coworker, and she wanted to keep the pregnancy hidden from her conservative Hindu parents. She said she was shocked by the premature delivery and did not realize how far along she was.

However, Patel is now being charged with both “fetal murder of an unborn child” and “neglect of a dependent.” Officials claimed that there was evidence Patel had taken abortion-inducing drugs (though a drug test did not reveal any traces of drugs) to try to lose the fetus. Further, they alleged that the child was still alive when Patel abandoned it in the dumpster.

Lynn Paltrow, who has spent her career as a lawyer trying to combat prosecution of pregnant women, said the charges were clearly contradictory. “How can you both have caused a pregnancy to terminate and given birth to a baby whom you neglect?” she asked.

The larger issue at stake is the “fetal homicide” laws across 37 states supposedly enacted to punish those who would attack a woman with the intent to make her lose her pregnancy. However, those laws are increasingly being used against the women themselves, with charges of murder brought up for things such as taking drugs or even falling down the stairs.

“What this prosecution makes clear is that not only is abortion being recriminalized in America, but that the women themselves — not just the people who perform abortions on them — can be arrested, investigated, prosecuted, and sent to jail for 20 or more years,” Paltrow said.

Sue Ellen Braunlin, the co-president of the Indiana Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, said that even more concerning is the fact that these laws have been targeting women of color first.

“These rights are going to be taken away first from the margins — from people of color, people who are immigrants, people who they may perceive won’t have a lot of support from the jury, and people who are easy to ‘other,’” she said. “I think that these women were probably particularly targeted.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/woman-could-face-70-years-in-prison-after-reporting-miscarriage/feed/0purvithegrio‘Yellow Fever’ short film challenges beauty standardshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/yellow-fever-short-film-challenges-beauty-ideals-skin-color/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/yellow-fever-short-film-challenges-beauty-ideals-skin-color/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 22:38:34 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250485]]>In a powerful short film titled “Yellow Fever,” Ng’endo Mukii, a Kenyan artist and filmmaker, sets out to expose the troubling messages portrayed by the media about skin color. She wanted to find a way to express the near self-loathing that many women of color experience.

“While growing up, I would come across women who practiced skin bleaching (‘lightening’, ‘brightening’), and often had a condescending internal reaction to them,” Mukii said.

“Now, I realize they are only products of our society, as are we all. Since our media perpetuates Western ideals to our girls and women, and we consume this information continuously from a young age, how can we fault anyone who is susceptible to these ideals (men included), without challenging the people that are creating them?”

In the film, Mukii’s niece, who is five years old, sits in front of a television screen with a white pop star and proclaims, “If I were American, I would be white, white, white, white and I’d love being white.” She then begins a heartbreaking tale of how magic could change her skin to be more white.

Each moment of the film is flowing with conflict, but Mukii said perhaps the most “exciting” for her to work with was the body landscapes.

“I had not worked with breathing bodies before in this way, and the effect of the staccato movement created from photographing individual frames was very satisfying. I was trying to create a sense of being uncomfortable in one’s own skin, and had been reading Frantz Fanon’s work at the time… I don’t know, it was the body as a breathing landscape, and the eruption of emotion. It just fit.”

Mukii wants to raise awareness of the issues brought by valuing one skin color over another, an awareness she says should highlight the fact that it is not enough to acknowledge the damage society’s obsession with being thin can be. “Why is there no acknowledgement of the pressure that exists to push Kenyan (and other) women to willingly poison their skin and bodies with various chemicals (mercury included) in an attempt to have a paler complexion? Why is this not some form of body dysmorphia related to the skin? Why should any normal girl feel that she will be more beautiful and lead a happier life if she loses weight? Why should any normal Kenyan girl feel the same, but in relation to being paler? Why do we live in societies that agree to either of these ideas?”

Earlier in the month, Professor Andrew Pessin was placed on leave from the university after a Facebook post describing Palestinians in Gaza as “a rabid pit bull chained in a cage, regularly making mass efforts to escape.”

Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron sent a letter out to students on Sunday explaining the class cancellation.

“By now, there have been many opinions expressed about the original Facebook post, as well as about subsequent comments on Yik Yak and elsewhere,” Bergeron noted. “But one thing has become extremely clear: the level of harm that incendiary language can have on a community. The post caused an outpouring of anger and pain among many different groups of students, faculty, and staff.”

“The groundswell of reaction makes it clear that the issue goes far beyond the effects of a single post. It is about who we are as a community,” she continued. “Earlier today, as I was writing this letter, I learned of another incident of racist graffiti in the restrooms of Crozier-Williams. We must take action immediately to expose and eradicate this ignorance and hatred. I have decided to cancel tomorrow’s classes to ensure these events receive the proper attention.”

Bergeron made it clear that she would not stand by just because hateful speech was protected by the First Amendment.

“Even though speech may be protected does not mean that we have to approve of the odious things that people choose to say with their freedom. I do not approve,” she explained. “It does mean, though, that we can and should use our freedom to speak out against injustice.”

On Monday, a campus-wide meeting will be held to discuss the recent events.

Video of the coverage is below.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/connecticut-college-cancels-classes-over-no-ns-warning/feed/0Screen Shot 2015-03-30 at 6.20.16 PMthegrioJay Z drops star-studded promo ft. Beyonce, Rihanna, Kanye & morehttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/jay-z-drops-star-studded-promo-beyonce-rihanna-kanye/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/jay-z-drops-star-studded-promo-beyonce-rihanna-kanye/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 20:13:51 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250491]]>Jay Z is re-launching TIDAL, the high-definition music service he recently acquired, tonight at 5 pm ET. To celebrate the occasion, he’s just released a promo that features the rapper having an epic board meeting.

In the clip, music artists who have aligned themselves with Hov’s new streaming service (by changing their Twitter and Facebook profile photos to cyan blue) all gather either in person or via video to witness history in the making.

The star-studded cast includes Beyonce, Rihanna, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, Usher, Alicia Keys and others — but will it be enough to make this brand a success?

Streaming services is a crowded market, with Spotify dominating the playing field and Apple recently teaming up with Beats Music.

Check out the A-list teaser below.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/jay-z-drops-star-studded-promo-beyonce-rihanna-kanye/feed/0TidalbluetelusmaSixteen states have more people in prison cells than college dormshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/southern-states-more-prisons-college-dorms/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/southern-states-more-prisons-college-dorms/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 18:56:02 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250441College or prison: which is more important? In 16 states in the land of the free, the answer is prison.

]]>College or prison: which is more important? In 16 states in the land of the free, the answer is prison.

As was reported in MetricMaps, there are 16 states where there are more bodies filling up the prisons than there are students living in college dormitories. What is truly fascinating, maybe even disturbing, is that nearly all of these 16 states are located in the South, the bottom portion of the country. You must view the map in order to appreciate the gravity of the situation.

Let than sink in for a minute. More people behind bars than in the dorms. What could it be about the South that would explain this? Could it be a tradition of slavery, racial violence and Jim Crow segregation, a legacy of criminalizing and dehumanizing people and of just not treating folks very well?

(MetricsMap)

Keep in mind that the United States has the largest prison population in the entire world, at more than 2 million, and an incarceration of 500 prisoners per 100,000 residents (and over 700 when local jails are factored in the equation). The devil is in the details, and apparently, much of story is in the South, which locks up a larger percentage of its population (552 per 100,000) than the Northeast (296), Midwest (389), or West (418).

Unpacking that just a little more, even within the South, some states are worse than others. For example, Louisiana is the state with the highest incarceration rate in the nation (867), followed by Mississippi (686), Oklahoma (654), Alabama and Texas (648 each).

Wherever you find mass incarceration, you find racism and abuse. As the state with the largest incarceration rate in the world’s foremost prison nation, Louisiana can boast that it locks up a greater percentage of its people than anywhere in the world. Louisiana is home to good food and good music and a rich culture. But the Bayou State locks up 1 out of every 86 people. And in Louisiana, a unanimous jury is not needed to convict someone of a crime, even sending them to prison for life.

Louisiana is home to Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the former slave plantation that actually operates as a slave plantation, with mostly black prisoners who engage in hard labor in the fields and white guards traditionally known as “freemen.” Meanwhile, 1 in 14 black men in New Orleans is incarcerated, and 1 in 7 is under some sort of governmental supervision, whether in prison or on parole or probation.

In Alabama, one of the prison leaders in the U.S., the prison population has swelled from 6,000 in 1979 to over 28,000 today, according to the Equal Justice Initiative. The state boasts some of the country’s longest sentences for violent and nonviolent offenders alike and is guilty of the most felony disenfranchisement in America. Meanwhile, while prison spending increased 45% from 2000-2004 in Alabama, spending on education increased a mere 7.5%, giving credence to the idea that education suffers when more and more prisons are built.

Further, judges in Alabama — who are elected — can override jury verdicts, even in death penalty cases. Alabama is also the only state in the country that does not provide state funding to provide legal assistance to death row prisoners. And while 65% of crimes in the state involve black murder victims, 80% of people sentenced to death were convicted of killing a white victim.

Meanwhile, while blacks are 27% of the population of Alabama, they are 63% of the prison population. And none of the appellate judges and only one of the elected prosecutors is black.

It is no accident that the states which imprison the most – including the Deep South — are among the poorest and find themselves at the bottom of the barrel in terms of life expectancy, health standards and education. After all, Dixie has a great deal of experience with depriving people of educational opportunity when it forbade blacks to read and write, in favor of imprisoning them against their will on slave plantations. In addition, the Slave Codes created a police state that criminalized black people and singled them out for punishment. And the era of Jim Crow segregation only continued the racial oppression and the forced labor and imprisonment, even up until the present day.

So you see, the South has a long history of prioritizing prisons over education, which could become its downfall. And investments in schools are cut as more prisons are built, even though crime has dropped for decades. The more money you have for one, the less you have for the other. Some habits are just too hard to break.

Laurence Fishburne is a successful, critically acclaimed actor with roles on hit shows on both ABC and NBC, not to mention a part in the upcoming Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice film.

Yet, his mother recently told the New York Post that she is broke and facing eviction because he refuses to reach out to her.

“He’s gone Hollywood. For 20 years, I funded my son’s career. He promised me he would take care of me. … To this day, I have not got a Christmas present or a ‘Thank you, Mama’ present. He hasn’t given me a penny,” she told the newspaper.

Hattie Crawford Fishburne, 80, claims she’s being kicked out of her $1500 a month Los Angeles apartment due to overwhelming living expenses. She receives $3,000 a month from social security and her pension from years of teaching in public schools in Brooklyn and Los Angeles but is struggling to pay the medical bills from her arthritis, under-active thyroid, high cholesterol and injuries she sustained in a massive car crash.

Despite her attempts to reach out to her famous son, she says he hasn’t returned her calls in a year, and now, she faces being evicted from her home tomorrow, Tuesday the 31st.

This isn’t the first time Fishburne has estranged himself from a member of his immediate family. His daughter Montana has admitted he stopped speaking to her when she started appearing in porn videos. She was last reported to be working as a stripper in Texas.

Fishburne, who played the iconic character of Morpheus on the “Matrix” trilogy, is worth an estimated $20 million and also stars in and produces ABC’s new hit comedy Black-ish.

“I stood up to Bill Cosby tonight because I believe the 38 women who have come forward so far to accuse him of raping them,” said Crook, who was later removed from the audience by security. “I can’t speak for those women, but I am determined to stand up with them and tell Mr. Cosby that he cannot simply avoid answering for those crimes.”

“I wanted [Cosby] to have to face, even if only for a moment, that reality before security escorted me out and allowed him to retreat to the comfort and embrace of audience willing to ignore those women,” Crook added.

Audience members immediately came to Cosby’s defense before the comedian added, “Just remain calm…. We are here to enjoy my gift. We are not here to argue. Let those people speak. We will find them and ask them to leave.”

Prior to Cosby’s performance Friday night, about 20 protesters gathered in front of the performance venue on behalf of Baltimore’s sexual-assault victim advocacy group in a protest called, “Your fame won’t shame anymore!”

A newly-hired employee talked to reporters outside of the store later that morning, expressing shock and disbelief that something like this could have happened.

Before the interview concluded, another employee came out of the store to cut it short.

“Jabari get your butt in here,” the other employee said before whisking Jabari away. “Bye.”

The moment left WGN-TV morning anchors chuckling Monday morning.

Watch the bizarre moment unfold below:

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/7-eleven-employee-interview-late/feed/07-Eleven-EmployeethegrioObama to make first visit to Kenya as presidenthttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/obama-visit-kenya/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/obama-visit-kenya/#commentsMon, 30 Mar 2015 16:24:12 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250432WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will make his first trip as president to Kenya, the country of his father’s birth.

The White House says Obama will visit Kenya in July for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which brings together business …

]]>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will make his first trip as president to Kenya, the country of his father’s birth.

The White House says Obama will visit Kenya in July for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which brings together business leaders, international organizations and governments. This will be the first time the summit takes place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Obama visited Kenya as a U.S. senator, but never as president. During a trip to other African countries last year, he said he was likely to visit Kenya before leaving the White House.

The president’s father came to the United States from Kenya for school and returned to his home country after his son’s birth. The elder Obama died more than 30 years ago, though the president has other family still living in Kenya.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Jamie Foxx is in trouble on social media for “transphobic” comments made during this year’s iHeartRadio music awards.

Foxx, who was hosting the awards, commented on rumors circulating about former Olympian and Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Bruce Jenner transitioning from man to woman. Although Jenner has not publicly addressed the reports, it is rumored that the next season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians will address the change.

According to the New York Daily News, Foxx joked that Jenner would perform during the show, saying “[He] will be here doing a his and hers duet by himself.”

Watch Jamie Foxx’s joke about Bruce Jenner below:

He then added, “I’m just busting your balls while I still can.”

The reaction on social media to Foxx’s joke was swift and unforgiving, with many users blasting Foxx for his “crass,” “transphobic,” “derogatory” and “ignorant” comments. Several users also expressed disappointment, saying Foxx was “better” than such jokes.

Jamie Foxx, if someone is potentially in the closet it's not cool to make a joke on national TV about it. Bruce Jenner joke was uncalled for

The suit, filed by Leonardo Aguirre, claims that Pantaleo was following Aguirre too closely and was speeding when the two of …

]]>Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold last summer, is being sued … again.

The suit, filed by Leonardo Aguirre, claims that Pantaleo was following Aguirre too closely and was speeding when the two of them got into an accident that caused Aguirre “severe and permanent” injuries on his neck, back, left shoulder and knees.

The police account of the accident differs greatly from the account in the lawsuit, with a police source saying that Pantaleo was driving a marked police car with his lights on as he was responding to an emergency call and that Pantaleo was struck by the other car.

The collision occurred last summer, just weeks before video was released of Eric Garner being put in a chokehold by police that subsequently led to his death. Pantaleo was not charged by a grand jury.

Aguirre’s lawsuit is one in a string of suits to come against Pantaleo, however. One suit, filed by Darren Collins and Tommy Rice, cost the city $30,000 after Collins and Rice complained that they were strip searched in public during a traffic stop and that Pantaleo slapped their testicles.

Another suit was filed by the Legal Aid Society during its attempts to make public Pantaleo’s growing disciplinary history.

NEW YORK (AP) — Comedy Central has named Trevor Noah, a 31-year-old comedian from South Africa, as Jon Stewart’s replacement on “The Daily Show.”

Noah, who was recently brought aboard as an on-air contributor, was chosen two months after Stewart unexpectedly announced he was leaving “The Daily Show” after 16 years as its host and principal voice.

Noah replaces the New Jersey-born Stewart as a biracial comic with an international perspective.

Noah has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Show with David Letterman.”

No official date for Stewart’s departure or Noah’s debut has been disclosed.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/30/trevor-noah-daily-show/feed/0Trevor-Noah-Daily-ShowthegrioMichelle Obama declares ‘Black Girls Rock!’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/michelle-obama-declares-black-girls-rock/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/michelle-obama-declares-black-girls-rock/#commentsSun, 29 Mar 2015 20:01:54 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250371]]>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the beauty, power and tenacity of black women while spreading her own message of education for girls at Black Girls Rock!, an annual event honoring trailblazing women of color from all walks of life.

“No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, you are beautiful,” Obama told the crowd, which included many young black girls.

“I am so proud of you. My husband, your president, is so proud of you,” she added. “We have so much hope and dreams for you.”

Obama was not among the honorees at Saturday night’s festivities, held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. That distinction went to actress Jada Pinkett Smith, singer Erykah Badu, actress Cicely Tyson, “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, educator Nadia Lopez and Dr. Helene D. Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA, a humanitarian organization.

However, Obama was the most celebrated participant. Wearing a form-fitting white dress, she jammed to performances from the likes of Badu, Fantasia, Sheila E!, Estelle and others and applauded the honorees.

Obama got arguably the night’s loudest ovation as she came on stage and declared “Black girls rock!” — the slogan and name of the organization founded by Beverly Bond. It is designed to uplift young black girls, a group that often has difficulty finding positive and reaffirming images of themselves in the world.

Obama acknowledged as much in her speech to celebrate three young honorees.

“I know there are voices that you are not good enough,” she said, acknowledging that she often lacked self-confidence growing up despite encouraging parents.

“Each of those doubts was like a test,” she said, “that I either shrink away from or rise to meet. And I decided to rise.”

Obama, who recently completed a trip to Japan and Cambodia as part of her worldwide push for better educational opportunities for girls, lauded the young honorees for excelling in their studies.

“There is nothing more important than being serious about your education,” the Ivy League-educated Obama said. “That’s why I am able to stand here tonight. … I want every one of our black girls do to the same, and our black boys.”

Obama’s speech was just one of many highlights of the nearly four-hour event, which will be shown Sunday, April 5, on BET.

Will Smith gave an emotional tribute to his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who received the Star Power award. Smith alluded to persistent rumors that the couple’s marriage was in trouble.

He said when one rumor got out of control, he had a chance for reflection.

“In that brief moment my heart jumped for a second and I started to imagine what my life would have been like without that woman,” he said as the couple’s daughter, Willow, beamed from the audience.

When Pinkett Smith accepted the honor, she alluded to recent slights of black girls and women — including a college baseball player’s slur against Little League pitcher Mo’ne Davis — as reasons why Black Girls Rock! is necessary.

She also implored black women to celebrate and be aware of their own strength.

“I need you to understand that we are the women who marched from cotton fields into fields of medicine … politics … entertainment,” she said. “We have found a way to march into the White House.”

Tyson also spoke to the resiliency of black women as she accepted her legacy award from hosts actresses Tracee Ellis Ross and Regina King.

“The moment anyone tries to demean or degrade you in any way, you have to know how great you are,” Tyson said. “Nobody would bother to beat you down if you were not a threat.”

DuVernay, whose civil rights drama “Selma” received an Academy Award nomination, making her the first black woman to notch such an achievement, name-checked a host of other black filmmakers in her speech as she accepted her Shot Caller award, and implored women to “figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story.”

The show peppered songs from entertainers like Jill Scott, Estelle and others with inspiring stories from the award winners. One of the members of the group Sister Sledge sang the song “We Are Family,” with the refrain “I’ve got all my sisters with me,” as the audience grooved along.

And sisterhood was the spirit of the evening, evident when Obama came on stage to close the show with all the honorees. When an embarrassed King flubbed a line, Obama gave her a hug and then jokingly rubbed her back.

According to authorities, seven people were shot early Saturday when a gunman opened fire during a crowded Spring Break house party on the coast of Florida.

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office says multiple 911 calls flooded in just before 1 a.m. Saturday reporting gunshots in Panama City Beach, Florida.

One victim, Tykeria Etheridge, thought she would not survive. “I was shot several times including in the neck. I just knew I was dead,” Etheridge wrote on Facebook. “All I could think about was my son. He’s all I got.”

The 22-year-old and some of the other victims had trekked the three-hour drive from Mobile, Alabama, to party. Etheridge says she was “just an innocent person like everybody else” when shots were fired into the crowded dance floor.

David Jamichael Daniels, 22, of Mobile, Alabama, has been charged with seven counts of attempted murder and is jailed awaiting an initial court appearance. There were no fatalities, but three people were critically wounded.

According to police:

Kearria Freed, 20, who was shot in the head; Devanta Moore, 21, who was shot in the chest; and Henton Franklin, 22, who was shot in the side. Three others were listed in stable condition: Jacole Young, 22, who police said was shot in the back three times; Kelli Curry, 21, who was shot in the leg; and Tykeria Ethridge, 22, who was shot in the neck and shoulder.

A seventh victim — Anesia Powell, 20 — was shot in the left arm, chest, and knee, and was undergoing surgery Saturday.

Jerome Saintjones, a spokesperson for Alabama A&M University, says that three of their students were injured during the melee. University officials are sending staff to Panama City Beach to assist the victims.

Hundreds of people have been arrested in the area near Panama City in recent weeks due to Spring Break gatherings. The alleged shooter is believed to have come to town with two friends while out on bond for his sixth arrest since 2012, Sheriff Frank McKeithen revealed at a press conference Saturday afternoon.

“It’s time to stop the bloodshed,” said council member Keith Curry, according to WMBB. “We’re lucky that we don’t have seven dead people.”

The Panama City Beach City Council called an emergency meeting on Saturday morning to address the increasingly chaotic Spring Break festivities that have left many residents fearing for their safety.

The image was photoshopped to illustrate the President and First Lady in the process of evolving from apes to humans. Not surprisingly, the publication was later forced to issue an apology.

The picture was part of a satirical piece that joked about Obama selling marijuana. The joke was supposed to be that the photos had been submitted by Russian president Vladimir Putin, along with a message that read:

Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia. He sent us this attachment at our request, and chose to send pictures instead of text because he doesn’t have a lot of time.

Nigerian-born author Chika Unigwe originally tweeted a photo of the spread:

Once it became clear that many people found this joke deeply offensive, the newspaper offered this statement.

When you consider the fragment apart from its context, which is a properly worked out satirical section, then you don’t see the joke but just a picture evoking sheer racism. We wrongly assumed that racism is no longer accepted, and that in this way it could be the subject of a joke.

In this case, we plead guilty of bad taste. We continue to be on the side of those that are battling any form of racism.

This all comes on the heels of Univision’s Rodner Figueroa being fired for suggesting that the first lady could have been cast in the Planet of the Apes franchise.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/belgian-newspaper-portrays-obamas-as-apes/feed/0obamas-as-apesbluetelusmaRoger Moore backtracks on racist comments about Idris Elba as James Bondhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/roger-moore-backtracks-racist-comments-idris-elba-james-bond/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/roger-moore-backtracks-racist-comments-idris-elba-james-bond/#commentsSun, 29 Mar 2015 13:53:26 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250348]]>Roger Moore has found himself in a world of controversy after making some recent remarks about Idris Elba.

Last year, Luther fans all over the world rejoiced when a leaked email written by ex-Sony Pictures exec Amy Pascal revealed she was interested in having Elba play James Bond. But Moore, who portrayed the iconic super-spy in seven films, doesn’t seem to be excited about having a black man as the next heir to his throne.

In an interview with Paris Matchmagazine, the 87-year-old actor opined,

A few years ago, I said that Cuba Gooding Jr. would make an excellent Bond, but it was a joke!

Although James may have been played by a Scot, a Welshman and an Irishman, I think he should be ‘English-English.’ Nevertheless, it’s an interesting idea, but unrealistic.

When the interview was published, Moore immediately received backlash on social media, with many particularly upset by his assertion that Elba was not “English-English.” The general consensus seemed to be that telling an English man — who was born in England — that he’s not English enough is just thinly veiled racism.

Yesterday, he took to Twitter to explain that this was all just a misunderstanding.

An interview I gave to Paris Match implies I said something racist about Idris Elba. That is simply untrue. #Lost in translation.

One can only speculate about what Moore really said to the publication, but when Elba himself was asked about potentially playing 007, he simply responded “Yes, if it was offered to me, absolutely.”

Below is a tribute to Moore in the role that made his career.

Grio fam, do you think Elba can fill his shoes?

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/roger-moore-backtracks-racist-comments-idris-elba-james-bond/feed/0Idris ElbabluetelusmaDestiny’s Child reunites at the Stellar Gospel Music Awardshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/destiny-child-reunites-at-stellar-gospel-music-awards/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/destiny-child-reunites-at-stellar-gospel-music-awards/#commentsSun, 29 Mar 2015 12:59:09 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250343]]>Looks like all the rumors about Destiny’s child reuniting this weekend were true.

Two years after performing together at the Super Bowl halftime show, Kelly Rowland, Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Michelle Williams came together Saturday night for the Stellar Gospel Music Awards. The trio made the rare appearance to support Michelle on her island-inspired single Say Yes and even wore semi-matching white and denim outfits (just like the good old days).

No one seemed more excited than Williams herself, who gleefully tweeted a cryptic message on Friday night.

Below are some fan videos that were posted on Instagram, but you can watch the full performance for yourself when the Stellar Gospel Music Awards air on April 5 on TV One.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/destiny-child-reunites-at-stellar-gospel-music-awards/feed/0michelle-williams-beyonce-kelly-rowland-say-yes-vidoe-destinys-child-2014-billboard-650bluetelusmaWhite frat boy who hung noose on historic black statue faces 11 years in prisonhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/frat-boy-noose-statue-ole-miss/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/29/frat-boy-noose-statue-ole-miss/#commentsSun, 29 Mar 2015 12:19:27 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250340JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Justice Department says a former University of Mississippi student has been indicted on federal charges connected to a noose being put on a statue of the student who integrated the school.

The noose was placed …

]]>

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Justice Department says a former University of Mississippi student has been indicted on federal charges connected to a noose being put on a statue of the student who integrated the school.

The noose was placed on the James Meredith statue on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford in February 2014. In 1962, Meredith was the first black student admitted to the university.

Graeme Phillip Harris of Alpharetta, Georgia, has been indicted on one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students because of their race or color.

It wasn’t immediately clear Friday whether Harris had an attorney.

Meredith, 81, tells The Associated Press it’s a shame that Mississippi had to rely on federal authorities to prosecute the case.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Since at least the beginning of March, inmates in San Francisco’s local County Jail No. 4 have been forced to participate in gladiatorial games by the city sheriff deputies, according to San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi.

Deputy Scott Neu, the apparent ringleader, already has a lot to answer for in the way he treats inmates, having previously faced accusations that he forced inmates to perform sexual acts on him. Neu is accused of threatening inmates into participating in the games by threatening to withhold food from them, threatening them with physical violence, and even threatening them with rape.

“I don’t know why he does it, but I just feel like he gets a kick out of it because I just see the look on his face,” Ricardo Palikiko Garcia, one of the inmates involved in the alleged brawls, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It looks like it brings him joy by doing this, while we’re suffering by what he’s doing.”

On Thursday, Adachi called for an independent investigation into the claims. “This is sadistic behavior. This was like something right out of ‘Game of Thrones.” he said. ’This is something that goes beyond any sense of common decency.”

Neu, along with three other deputies who were allegedly involved in the games, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/san-francisco-prison-allegedly-forced-inmates-into-combat-fighting/feed/0Public Defender Jeff AdachithegrioTeen handcuffed, threatened with arrest for using pin to hold glasses togetherhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/teen-handcuffed-threatened-with-arrest-for-using-pin-to-hold-glasses-together/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/teen-handcuffed-threatened-with-arrest-for-using-pin-to-hold-glasses-together/#commentsSat, 28 Mar 2015 18:31:53 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250286]]>Parents and students have rallied outside a high school in support of a senior who was handcuffed and threatened with arrest over a pin that he was using to hold his glasses together. Protesters are wearing pins that read, “We’re students not prisoners.”

The student, identified as Noah, had been attended classes for weeks with broken glasses held together by a pin, but on Thursday, campus security stopped him.

“When (Noah) reached for his glasses, the safety agents must have thought he was reaching for a weapon,” said sophomore Britney Brazela, who saw what happened. “Three or four cops jumped on him. They pushed him into a wall and then onto the floor. While he was going down, his elbow accidentally hit one of them in the face.”

According to police, Noah did not follow instructions, was confrontational and struggled with the agents.

But Brazela says that is out of character for Noah. “Noah is a very quiet kid — I never saw him cause any trouble,” she said. “I can’t believe that happened. It was scary.”

Noah’s principal called him into the office to give his account of what happened.

“While our student was writing, NYPD officers arrived on our floor, forcefully entered Principal Bloomberg’s office, and handcuffed our student again,” a PTA letter says. “He was dragged out, placed under arrest, and held in a room by NYPD officers without his parents or any of our staff present.”

After the police and the school administrators argued it out, Noah was released and was not charged, though he still has to answer a summons to Youth Court.

Noah joined the cast just recently, in December, but already the 31-year-old South African comedian has been placed on the short list of those being considered to replace Stewart, a source told Variety.

Since February 10, when Stewart shocked viewers by announcing his plans to leave his long-time post at The Daily Show, rumors have circulated about possible replacements. The 52-year-old Stewart had established The Daily Show as a political force, known as much for its satire as for its political clout, since taking over the show in 1999. With Stewart stepping down, the pressure is on to find someone to fill his late-night shoes.

Watch Trevor Noah’s stand-up set in London

Noah is well-known in South African and has been on Leno and Letterman. In 2013, Showtime aired a comedy special featuring Noah. He is currently on tour in Dubai and Oman.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/south-african-comedian-trevor-noah-may-replace-jon-stewart/feed/0Trevor NoahthegrioQuestion about Michael Brown leads to beating on St. Louis trainhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/mike-brown-question-attack-on-train/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/mike-brown-question-attack-on-train/#commentsSat, 28 Mar 2015 16:57:47 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250306A man who sat down next to another man on a St. Louis train began to assault the second man when he declined to give his opinion on the Michael Brown case.

“I think it was disgusting that people were sort of laughing and smiling about it,” the victim said. “And no one offered to help. No one seemed to call 911.”

The assault has been condemned by the community at large, with St. Louis alderman Antonio French, a vocal community leader in the aftermath of Ferguson, tweeting, “Mike Brown question sparks MetroLink beating caught on video. This is disgusting. We have a major problem, STL.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/mike-brown-question-attack-on-train/feed/0Mike-Brown-question-attackthegrioTwo children found dead in a freezer, mother allegedly ‘beat them to death with extension cord and hot iron’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/two-children-found-dead-in-a-freezer-mother-alleged/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/two-children-found-dead-in-a-freezer-mother-alleged/#commentsSat, 28 Mar 2015 16:11:49 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250293]]>

The two surviving siblings of two children found dead in a freezer have come forward to tell their stories of trauma and abuse.

The stories come after the deaths of Stoni Blair, 13, and Stephen Berry, 9, were ruled homicides, meaning their mother, Mitchelle Blair, 35, may be charged for homicide in addition to the child abuse charges already set before her.

Both children had been beaten with a piece of wood and extension cord as well as hit with a hot iron.

The two children, a 17-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, knew that their siblings had been killed, and the daughter even revealed that her mother had forced her to put her sister’s body in the freezer.

“Blair tortured Stephen for approximately two weeks prior to his death by tying a belt around his neck, throwing hot water on him while in the shower and putting a plastic bag over his head,” the daughter said.

Blair told police that she had placed Stephen “in a boiling hot tub of water until his feet blistered” for allegedly sexually assaulting a relative. After his death, she wrapped him “in his favorite blanket” and placed him in the freezer.

According to police reports, Blair killed Stoni nine months later when she said that she did not like her siblings. Blair strangled her with a tee shirt and wrapped her head in a plastic bag, after which point she had the 17-year-old place the body in the freezer.

The surviving brother also said that he knew his siblings had been killed and that they were in the freezer.

The two fathers of the surviving children have been declared unfit to take care, owing together around $50,000 in child support. The Michigan Department of Human Services is working to take steps to end Blair’s right to custody over the children. In the meantime, they are both living with a relative.

“While we all understand the desire to know what happened in that home is strong, I will ask you to be mindful of the two children who were also in that home and are still living,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig told reporters Wednesday.

“They’ve been through a lot, a tremendous trauma.”

Watch coverage of the story below.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/two-children-found-dead-in-a-freezer-mother-alleged/feed/0Freezer Bodies Detroi_WilsthegrioStudy shows murder is the leading cause of death for rappershttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/study-shows-murder-is-the-leading-cause-of-death-for-rappers/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/study-shows-murder-is-the-leading-cause-of-death-for-rappers/#commentsSat, 28 Mar 2015 15:48:30 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250282]]>A new study by the University of Sydney has found that murder is the leading cause of death for rappers.

Dianna Theadora Kenny, a professor of psychology and music at the University of Sydney, examined over 13,000 musicians, across several different genres, and their deaths and found that over half of all rappers’ deaths were related to murder.

“Murder accounted for 6.0% of deaths across the sample, but was the cause of 51% of deaths in rap musicians and 51.5% of deaths for hip hop musicians, to date,” Kenny said. “This could be due to these genres’ strong associations with drug-related crime and gang culture.”

While the findings are worrying for prospective musicians, Kenny was quick to assure people that hip hop was not a death sentence, pointing out that the genre was still relatively new and did not yet have as many artists who had reached an age where health problems became more pronounced.

“In the case of the newer genres, it’s worth pointing out that members of these genres have not yet lived long enough to fall into the highest-risk ages for heart- and liver-related illnesses,” she wrote in the study. “Consequently, they had the lowest rates of death in these categories.”

On Thursday, the White House posted a video to its account of President Obama interviewing The Wire creator David Simon. The video seems to be part of the White House’s push to reach more of the voting population through the Internet and other media.

The interview began with a bit of fanboying from the president, who said, “At the front end, I’ve gotta tell you, I’m a huge fan of The Wire. I think it’s one of the greatest, not just television shows, but pieces of art, in the last couple of decades.”

But the real crux of the conversation was the discussion of the War on Drugs and of prison reform.

Simon described his reporter’s eye view of the War on Drugs during the 1980s “at a time when people thought they could arrest their way out of a drug problem.”

Obama responded by saying that the push had caused a “reduction in violent crime in most big cities in America,” which is definitely a good thing, but that “a consequence of that was this massive trend towards incarceration, even toward non-violent drug offenders.”

He also described an “explosion” of incarceration rates that affects “disproportionately African-American people” and leaves many with conviction records that make them “functionally unemployable.”

But he went on to say that there was some “good news” on the topic of prison reform, namely “an increasing realization, on the left but also on the right, politically, that what we’re doing is counterproductive… We’re all responsible for finding a solution to this.”

Watch the entire video for yourself below.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/obama-talks-prison-reform-with-the-wire-creator-david-simon/feed/0obamawire1thegrioKanye West & Dame Dash reunite for new business ventureshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/kanye-west-dame-dash-reunite-for-new-business-ventures/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/kanye-west-dame-dash-reunite-for-new-business-ventures/#commentsSat, 28 Mar 2015 14:08:50 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250278]]>Kanye West has previously admitted that when Roc-A-Fella Records founders Dame Dash and Jay Z split up, he chose Jay because he knew Hov could do the most to help his career — a decision he’s at times felt guilty for.

Now, it seems that West and his original mentor have staged a reunion of sorts.

This week, in a series of Instagram videos, Dash announced that the duo will be purchasing Karmaloop; a streetwear e-commerce site that has filed for bankruptcy protection.

Dash also hinted that the two have much more in the works.

So, you know, we just about to do some new s**t. Just stick together culturally. Take over the world. Create a whole new industry. You know what I mean? And just play the game fair. Honorable people stick together. So, this is how the generations do. Now he’s super-famous. And we linking up. And we decided to go buy Karmaloop. We just talked about it. And it’s gonna happen. And a couple of other cool things. We ain’t doing no music unless that’s for fun

This week, Dash also revealed that he hopes to “put Complex out of business.”

“I’m gonna put Complex out of business for f*****g with me,” he said. “I don’t like them. It’s a war between me and them. We’re going to do that. Me and Kanye are going to snatch that up real quick.”

Check out the Instagram posts below.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/kanye-west-dame-dash-reunite-for-new-business-ventures/feed/0Dame-Dash-Kanye-WestbluetelusmaTaraji P. Henson apologizes to police for claiming her son was racially profiledhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/taraji-p-henson-apologizes-to-police-for-claiming-her-son-was-racially-profiled/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/taraji-p-henson-apologizes-to-police-for-claiming-her-son-was-racially-profiled/#commentsSat, 28 Mar 2015 12:07:27 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250271Empire star Taraji P. Henson took to Instagram to offer a public apology to the Glendale Police Department after newly released police video contradicts her claim that her son was racially profiled and treated unfairly. She now says she “overreacted” …]]>Empire star Taraji P. Henson took to Instagram to offer a public apology to the Glendale Police Department after newly released police video contradicts her claim that her son was racially profiled and treated unfairly. She now says she “overreacted” when she told Uptown Magazine that she was pulling her son from USC and sending him to Howard University because of the incident.

“My child has been racially profiled. He was in Glendale, California, and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn’t give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for,” she said in the interview that was published last week.

But on Friday, the Los Angeles Times released police video which countered the Oscar-nominated actress’ story. The footage from Oct. 18, 2014, shows the officer driving in traffic about 10:10 p.m. in Glendale when Henson drives through a lighted crosswalk as a person walks across.

When the officer approaches the car, Johnson hands the officer his insurance information and says he’s never been arrested. He says his name is Marcell Johnson, and his mother is actress Taraji P. Henson.

Johnson later confesses to the officer that he is in possession of state-issued medical marijuana (but couldn’t find his marijuana license), and a prescription pill, Ritalin, that a friend gave him.

“You know you’re not supposed to have that, right?” the officer told him.

Johnson then let the officer search his car.

He later revealed to officers that he had smoked marijuana two hours before driving, at which point a sobriety test was performed. He passed the test.

The officer appeared to cut Johnson a break by giving him a citation for possessing marijuana, instead of a traffic violation, which would have more damaging effect to his driving record.

“I am not going to give you a citation for running that yellow because that would actually put a moving violation on your driving license, and you are going to have to go to traffic school and all that stuff, so I am helping you by not giving you a violation on it. All I am going to do is take the weed from you,” he said.

The video of the incident went viral, forcing Henson to make the following statement in a social media post.

Taraji P. Henson (Instagram

“I would like to publicly apologize to the officer and the Glendale Police Department,” she said in an Instagram message after the paper released the video. “A mother’s job is not easy and neither is a police officer’s. Sometimes as humans we overreact without gathering all the facts. As a mother in this case, I overreacted and for that I apologize. Thank you to that officer for being kind to my son.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/28/taraji-p-henson-apologizes-to-police-for-claiming-her-son-was-racially-profiled/feed/0Taraji-P-Henson-apology-police-son-racial-profileddwilson1911Taraji P. Henson (InstagramRaven Symone’s latest fail: ‘I’m from every continent in Africa except for one’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/raven-symone-from-every-continent-in-africa/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/raven-symone-from-every-continent-in-africa/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 23:44:54 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250265At this point, Raven Symone’s foot should be so far into her mouth that she swallows leather crumbs. She seems to be on a press junket to prove to us that she needs a life mentor.

We used to use …

]]>At this point, Raven Symone’s foot should be so far into her mouth that she swallows leather crumbs. She seems to be on a press junket to prove to us that she needs a life mentor.

We used to use Raven as an example of a well-adjusted child star. Now, we need to use her as an example of why critical thinking is important. It mostly started last year when she did an interview with Oprah and said she doesn’t see herself as African American but “colorless.” I was wondering if the girl was gas or water, because I don’t know how she got to that conclusion. She attempted to clean that up to little success. Recently, she was on The View defending the Univision anchorman who said First Lady Michelle Obama looked like a monkey. Her obtuse self said “some people do look like animals. People say I look like a toucan.” I just wanted Sojourner Truth’s ghost to come out and give her a wedgie, because the girl spews nonsense.

The latest Raven Fail is from an interview she did with E! News, where she was supposed to be clearing the air and explaining herself. Being gifted at being clueless is a bit of her superpower, because Raven made us all collectively facepalm when she discussed her Ancestry.com results.

“I am from every continent in Africa except for one AND I’m from every continent in Europe except for one.”

Let us play a game of “Count the Levels of Wrong” in this statement. There’s the fact that Africa and Europe seem to have been upgraded to planets, because the countries within them are now considered continents by Miss Symone, She said it so strong too, with such conviction, and I wonder if geography went on vacation. Did she not pay enough attention to her on-set tutor when she was young, because how did she get here? Nobody’s supposed to be here.

Let’s say that was just a slip of the tongue and she really did mean to say “country.” Let us try to give her some benefit of the doubt and say she just made an honest mistake. Can we call science to the carpet here and ask some real questions? If Ancestry.com told Raven that she is from every country in Africa but one, and every European country but one, she needs to get her money back, and they need to be outed for being fraudulent as hell. How is she genetically linked to over 100 countries (there are 50 in Europe, 54 in Africa)? HOW, SWAY?? I know she really wants to be colorless and not be placed in a box, but the science lie detector says that is a lie. Raven must think she’s Captain Planet’s cousin, and I don’t have time!

When you add her statement after the ultra wrong one that says her family has lived in Virginia for the last 400 years, you just have to wonder why common sense and logic go on break when she talks. Raven Symone is 29 years old, folks. 29. She is not a child, and she is far too grown to be this daft.

I just wonder where her people are? Does she have a PR team or publicist? Why haven’t they stopped her from doing interviews regarding race, ethnicity or anything remotely outside of her talking about characters she’s played? Who in her camp will tell her to go have a stadium worth of seats until she reads some books that will teach her something? I just need her to stop her “I Should Be Quiet About Culture” World Tour.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/raven-symone-from-every-continent-in-africa/feed/0Raven-symone-every-continent-africadwilson1911Homeless veteran Alicia Watkins now a student at Harvardhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/homeless-veteran-harvard-student/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/homeless-veteran-harvard-student/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 21:34:29 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250217]]>In 2010, Alicia Watkins appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to tell her story.

The 10-year veteran was homeless, living out of a car that she rented for $10 a day.

Watkins served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where she risked her life and watched others give their lives in the service. But when she returned home, she had nowhere to live. At one point, she did find housing, but she gave up that comfort to a homeless mother of three children.

Watch more on Alicia Watkins’ story below:

“It might have been different had I not seen the children and the babies. So, I decided to be on the street and put them in the room,” Watkins told Oprah five years ago. “Why wouldn’t I?”

She is living with a family friend after her friends and family found out she was homeless by watching the show. Until the interview aired, they had no idea how desperate her situation was.

“I had… alienated myself from everyone,” she admits now. “They really were shocked when they found out, and they were also just hurt by the fact that I was suffering.”

Unfortunately, Watkins is still struggling to find work because of her health problems.

“I have traumatic brain injury, I have post-traumatic stress disorder, I have a spinal cord injury,” she says. “It’s a hard road. I would love to be able to work today. I have offers, I have people that are willing to help me, but they all have to take a backseat to my health. As much as I want to work, I have to acknowledge that I am a casualty of war.”

Still, Watkins is looking to the future. “I wanted to be able to care for wounded warriors, and so I decided to apply to Harvard University,” she says. “In 2012, I was accepted. My college expenses are paid by the G.I. Bill.”

Even her personal life has turned a corner. “I recently got engaged, on my birthday of all days,” she says. “It is amazing.”

The upcoming second season of Bravo’s Blood, Sweat & Heels is going to pack an emotional punch.

Daisy Lewellyn takes viewers along for her journey as she battles stage 3 bile duct cancer.

“I was doing press for season one and my makeup artists noticed that my eyes had this crazy green color,” Daisy told OK! Magazine. “I assumed I was just tired – but it turned out I had a tumor in my bile duct. It’s super rare.”

In an interview with theGrio, Daisy opens up about her cancer diagnosis and how she had to courage to allow cameras to capture it all.

“You hear cancer and it’s crazy and an unfortunate thing, but you never really expect it to sit right in your lap, and it sat in my lap,” she said.

“Honestly, it’s probably been the toughest thing I have ever dealt with in my entire life, but I do think it’s been the most rewarding, because it’s just really shown me how strong I am.”

The latest season of Blood, Sweat & Heels wrapped up filming last year, and Daisy says viewers will see her complete journey of cancer treatment.

“You’re going to see on the show my diagnosis from A-Z in terms of cancer. I haven’t beat it; I just completed my treatments. Cancer is very interesting because you get hit with this news, and I think everyone is just so eager to get to that ‘you are done.’ For me, I can’t really focus on doctors saying, ‘Daisy you are cancer free,’ because I would suffocate. I have to celebrate every single day. I believe in celebrating as I go along.”

Tune in for the premiere of Blood, Sweat & Heels season 2, Sunday at 9/8c.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/blood-sweat-heels-daisy-lewellyn-cancer/feed/0Daisy LlewellynwitherspooncBlack state senator who stood by SAE frat member is no ‘Uncle Tom’ or herohttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/black-state-senator-who-stood-by-sae-frat-member-is-neither-an-uncle-tom-or-hero/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/black-state-senator-who-stood-by-sae-frat-member-is-neither-an-uncle-tom-or-hero/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 20:19:30 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250215Most state senators do not receive national attention, but Oklahoma State Senator Anastasia Pittman has plenty now. Whether it is the kind she wants is debatable, but she does at least have the spotlight.

Earlier this week, Pittman organized a …

]]>Most state senators do not receive national attention, but Oklahoma State Senator Anastasia Pittman has plenty now. Whether it is the kind she wants is debatable, but she does at least have the spotlight.

Earlier this week, Pittman organized a press conference to allow Levi Pettit (one of the fraternity brothers in that disgusting viral “ni**er” chant video) to make a public apology. The setting looked like something out of a Chappelle Show skit. Pettit’s tall, white and pale frame stood amongst a backdrop of black people as he apologized for gleefully singing about ni**ers and lynching. There was a woman, a college-aged looking guy and for good measure, a few stodgy old black dudes.

Pettit offered a carefully worded apology and vowed to do his part to prevent an incident like that from occurring again (though he declined to divulge where he learned the awful song). As expected, many people were less than impressed with the press conference. There’s not much a person could do to redeem himself after so clearly and so publicly becoming the face and voice of racism and white privilege in America.

But Pettit wasn’t the only person to gain a new wave of negative attention following that nationally televised apology. State Senator Anastasia Pittman (the black woman standing next to Pettit at the press conference) has received quite a bit of criticism.

Pittman, who has been a state legislator since 2006, posted an announcement about the press conference on her Facebook page and that’s when the tough typers of social media revealed themselves. People called her every name, but the one her mother gave her. Many of the harsher comments have now been removed, but “coon” and “Uncle Tom” were in many of the tirades. One commenter said “Why your dumb ass stood up there and help vindicate a racist you know nothing about. Maya Angelou says it best, when someone shows you who they are believe them, most racists will die racists and your dumb ass speaking on his behalf made you look like uncle tom trash.” Ouch.

While, I agree that the press conference was odd and made the black people look like decoration for Pettit’s apology tour, calling Pittman old timey racist names for her participation, kind of defeats the purpose of the criticism. Being upset with Pettit for using the word nigger and then calling Pittman a coon, just doesn’t match up.

There has been some support for Pittman too though. A Dallas Morning News editorial offered effusive praise. “We need people like Pittman in our public life. We need leaders who are willing to unite us, who are willing to see past our mistakes and our differences to see that we can be something better than we are. And we need leaders who won’t leap to every opportunity to point out how wrong the other guy is to show how right they can be.”

Meh. That’s too far on the other side. Calling out racism is not a cheap shot, it’s a necessary activity in order to have an honest conversation about how we can better relate to each other as decent human beings. The people who called Pittman derogatory names and the people who praise her for not being a “race baiter” are all being extreme.

Pittman can step up and be a an even keeled leader on this issue, but she does not have to literally hold Pettit’s hand to do so. Nor is she deserving of being called ugly names. Hopefully, everyone involved will be able to gain value from this situation beyond being the hot social media topic of the moment.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/black-state-senator-who-stood-by-sae-frat-member-is-neither-an-uncle-tom-or-hero/feed/0SAE-frat-Levi-Pettit-apologydemetriairwinthegrioEighteen-year-old Transgender teen dies of apparent suicidehttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/transgender-teen-dead-suicide-north-carolina/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/transgender-teen-dead-suicide-north-carolina/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 19:23:58 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250223]]>The death of 18-year-old Blake Brockington is the second apparent suicide of a transgender teen to rock a North Carolina community.

According to Charlotte’s Time Out Youth Center, Brockington died Monday night. The teen activist, who campaigned for racial equality, had sought help at the center with his transition from female to male.

Brockington moved in with a foster family just before he began his transition to male as a high school sophomore.

Watch Blake Brockington share his story in a video interview below:

“My family feels like this is a decision I made,” Brockington said. “They think, ‘You’re already black, why would you want to draw more attention to yourself?’ But it’s not a decision. It is who I am. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Brockington described the bullying that followed his transition as the “hardest part” of becoming male. “I saw how narrow-minded the world really is,” he said.

Unfortunately, Brockington’s story is all too common. Nearly half of transgender teens attempt suicide, a rate that is greater than attempts by gay, lesbian and bisexual adults.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday in Ravenel, South Carolina.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/transgender-teen-dead-suicide-north-carolina/feed/0Transgender-Teen-SuicidethegrioPolice video appears to contradict Taraji P. Henson’s claim her son was racially profiledhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/police-video-appears-to-contradict-taraji-p-hensons-claim-her-son-was-racially-profiled/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/police-video-appears-to-contradict-taraji-p-hensons-claim-her-son-was-racially-profiled/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 19:03:11 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250213]]>Earlier this week, actress Taraji P. Henson made headlines after revealing that her 20-year-old son, Marcell Johnson, was racially profiled in Glendale, California, where he was stopped by police.

“My child has been racially profiled. He was in Glendale, California, and did exactly everything the cops told him to do, including letting them illegally search his car. It was bogus because they didn’t give him the ticket for what he was pulled over for,” she said in an interview with Uptown Magazine.

Today the Los Angeles Times has released police video which seems to counter the Oscar-nominated actress’ claims that her son was racially profiled.

The footage from Oct. 18 shows the officer driving in traffic about 10:10 p.m. in Glendale when Henson drives through a lighted crosswalk as a person walks across.

When the officer approaches the car, Johnson hands the officer his insurance information and says he’s never been arrested. He says his name is Marcell Johnson, and his mother is actress Taraji P. Henson.

Johnson later confesses to the officer that he is in possession of state-issued medical marijuana (but couldn’t find his marijuana license), and a prescription pill, Ritalin, that a friend gave him.

“You know you’re not supposed to have that, right?” the officer told him.

Johnson then let the officer search his car.

He later revealed to officers that he had smoked marijuana two hours before driving, at which point a sobriety test was performed. He passed the test.

The officer appeared to cut Johnson a break by giving him a citation for possessing marijuana, instead of a traffic violation which would have more damaging effect to his driving record.

“I am not going to give you a citation for running that yellow because that would actually put a moving violation on your driving license, and you are going to have to go to traffic school and all that stuff, so I am helping you by not giving you a violation on it. All I am going to do is take the weed from you,” he said.

Henson’s publicist, Pam Sharp, responded to the LA Times article, saying, “We have said all and wish to protect her son’s privacy.”

Saved by the Bell star Lark Voorhies was spotted leaving Jimmy Kimmel Live yesterday in Los Angeles. Afterwards, Voorhies took time to chat with some paparazzi.

In an interview with PopCandiesTV, Voorhies talked about LeBron James, who she says is currently the sexiest athlete.

“I like how he’s maturing, I find that sexy,” she said.

When asked how she feels about his hairline, Voorhies said, “I think it’s set and just fine where it is… yeah it’s dazzling.”

She also spoke with GotPapTV and explained why she didn’t take part in Jimmy Fallon’s Saved by the Bell reunion sketch last month.

“It just wasn’t on our schedule. I cheered it the entire time,” Voorhies said. “Of course I would have loved to be there with the entire dynamic package, however I thoroughly found it humorous the entire time. I really enjoyed the entire skit, I thought it was wonderful… phenomenal.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/lark-voorhies-jimmy-kimmel-lebron-james/feed/0Lark VoorhiesthegrioJudge: School security guard can be fired for ‘black thug’ Facebook posthttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/security-guard-black-thug-facebook/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/security-guard-black-thug-facebook/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 17:15:40 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250154]]>U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Irenas turned down an injunction that would have stopped a New Jersey high school security guard from being fired over her comments about “another black thug” on Facebook.

According to NJ.com, twelve-year veteran Mary Czaplinski made the comments on her social media account the day after Philadelphia police officer Robert Wilson was killed while trying to break up a robbery.

“Praying hard for the Philly cop shot today by another black thug,” the Vineland High School employee wrote. “may(be) all white people should start riots and protests and scare the hell out of them.”

She also posted a picture of Wilson the next day with the caption: “This is what a hero looks like.”

Czaplinski later tried to justify her comments, saying, “…there are thugs of every race…im just tired of race cards being played all over the place…whether black, white, Mexican, Spanish, Puerto rican, Cuban, polish, Italian, irish…we are people…Maybe if we all just accepted the fact things could change.”

School officials were made aware of Czaplinski’s comments via an anonymous email, and she was placed on administrative leave March 7. A week later, Joseph Rossi, the schools’ personnel director, sent her a letter to notify her that she had been fired.

“Your offensive and inflammatory remark is troubling for any person but it is especially inappropriate and disconcerting for a public school security officer,” Rossi wrote.

Czaplinski has since sued the school, claiming both that her comments would not interfere with her ability to do her job and that her constitution right to free speech was violated. However, the district judge disagreed.

“The Court finds that Plaintiff is unlikely to succeed in her claim that her comment was constitutionally protected, because Defendant likely had adequate justification, based on Plaintiff’s position as a security guard, for treating her differently from any other member of the general public,” Irenas ruled.

It is not immediately clear whether or not Czaplinski will appeal the decision.

Last year, Michael Sam made history as the first openly gay player to be drafted in the NFL.

His NFL career has since been short-lived. Before the season opened, he was cut from the team that drafted him, the St. Louis Rams, and then had a brief stint with the Dallas Cowboys practice squad before being released in October.

“I am not the only gay person in the NFL,” Sam said. “I’m just saying there is a lot of us. I respect the players that did reach out to me and had the courage to tell me that they were also gay, but they do not have the same courage as I do to come out before I even played a down in the NFL.

Sam, whose recent appearance on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars made some critics question his “focus” on football, said he may have been naïve when he decided to come out as gay last year.

“Maybe I thought it was 2014, and people will understand that there’s gay NFL players,” Sam said.”There’s gay athletes everywhere. But I was clearly wrong. It was a huge deal.”

Sam has not been picked up by an NFL team since his brief tenure with the Cowboys. He participated in the NFL’s Veteran Combine earlier this month, but reportedly didn’t perform particularly well.

“Hopefully I’m not being discriminated [against] because I’m gay,” Sam said. “I don’t believe that I’m being discriminated [against] because I’m gay. I just want to know if I’m truly not in the NFL, it’s because of talent. Let it be because of my talents. But you’ve got to prove that I can’t play this game. If you look at the film, clearly I can. So, I’ll leave it at that.”

Last week, Mikaila Ulmer went on ABC’s Shark Tank to present her new line of lemonade, called ‘BeeSweet.’ One of the hit show’s judges, FUBU CEO Daymond John, was so impressed with Ulmer’s pitch that he decided to invest $60,000 and a 25 percent stake in her enterprise.

Just like that.

“Partnering with Mikaila made perfect sense,” John said, according to Black Enterprise. “She’s a great kid with a head for business and branding. She’s got a great idea, and I’m happy to help take BeeSweet to the next level,” John said.

Mikaila got the idea for the business when she was just four-years-old and was stung twice by bees, reports the New Pittsburgh Courier.

“I didn’t enjoy the bee stings at all,” the Austin, Texas native says on her official website. “They scared me. But then something strange happened. I became fascinated with bees. I learned all about what they do for me and our ecosystem.”

But as Mikaila researched, she discovered that bees were edging close to endangered territory, so she decided to use local honey in her lemonade recipe. Adapting the recipe from a 1940s cookbook, she set to work using local bees’ honey and becoming an advocate for the little stingers in the process.

Currently, Mikaila’s lemonade line is available in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana Whole Foods an on her website, though we expect to see it begin to grow nationwide after her Shark Tank appearance!

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/darius-mccrary-arrested-child-support/feed/0Darius-McCrarythegrioJay Z takes on Dr. Dre and Apple with new streaming businesshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/jay-z-dr-dre-apple-music-streaming/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/jay-z-dr-dre-apple-music-streaming/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 14:30:45 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250155Jay Z is going head-to-head with Apple — and Apple supporters Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine — by building his own streaming business. This streaming service will be “created by artists, supported by artists,” in an attempt to win …]]>Jay Z is going head-to-head with Apple — and Apple supporters Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine — by building his own streaming business. This streaming service will be “created by artists, supported by artists,” in an attempt to win big names over to his streaming service.

Already, Tidal, the streaming service Jay Z has provided, is disputing with Apple over the rights to exclusive content such as new albums by Florence and the Machine and other big names.

Of course, this also puts Jay Z directly at odds with Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, who have been big supporters of Apple’s Beats service.

“There’s only one person with a bigger Rolodex than Jimmy Iovine and that’s Jay Z,” said one industry source.

And with Jay Z’s focus on artists pitted against Apple’s reputation for playing hardball with its iTunes services, it looks like Tidal could give Beats a run for its money.

“If you are Jimmy, you’ve got be thinking, this guy is beating me to the punch at trying to get all the artists,” said a source.

The streaming service is already up and running, for a fee of $20 per month, while Apple isn’t due to launch theirs until this summer.

“He’s disrupting Apple’s venture,” said one source.

Tidal boasts better sound quality than other streaming services like Spotify, and with 580,000 subscribers between Tidal and other Aspiro services, Jay Z is already a big competitor.

One night, shortly after she moved into this home, she was watching television upstairs in the relative’s room. She was lying on the bed when the defendant came in. The defendant told her that ‘this is how [you] make money.’” She then “tried to get the relative’s attention by screaming, but the defendant put his hand over her mouth.”

Guider then allegedly assaulted the girl.

In December, the victim approached her relative to say that Guider had been “messing with her,” but the relative did not believe her.

It was not until March, when another relative noticed that the girl “appeared pregnant” that the relative took the victim to the hospital, despite the fact that a pediatrician had recommended a hospital visit in January.

At Mt. Sinai Hospital, doctors confirmed the pregnancy and told the girl that she was due “at the end of May or the beginning of June.”

If he is convicted, Guider will face up to 60 years in prison.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/man-sexual-assault-impregnating-10-year-old/feed/0Darrick-GuiderthegrioTSA to stop profiling black women’s hair during airport pat-down screeningshttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/tsa-black-women-hair-airport-screening/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/tsa-black-women-hair-airport-screening/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 13:13:52 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250150On Thursday, two black women who say that their natural hair was patted down by airport security announced that the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) had agreed to stop the racial-profiling of hair in their pat-down screenings.

Malaika Singleton, a Sacramento …

]]>On Thursday, two black women who say that their natural hair was patted down by airport security announced that the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) had agreed to stop the racial-profiling of hair in their pat-down screenings.

Malaika Singleton, a Sacramento neuroscientist, said that she became aware of the problem last year on her way to a conference in London.

“I was going through the screening procedures like we all do, and after I stepped out of the full body scanner, the agent said, ‘OK, now I’m going to check your hair,'” Singleton said, noting that she went through the same thing at the airport on her way back home.

When Singleton contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, another woman there, Novella Coleman, had also had two similar experiences. Although Coleman had complained to the ACLU before, nothing had been done, but with Singleton’s testimony added to her own, there was now another complaint to be filed.

Coleman said that she had heard other black women give her similar stories, and every time, there was a new excuse from TSA staff for the search. They gave her every reason from “abnormalities” to searching hair extensions (even though Coleman does not wear extensions).

On Thursday, both women announced that the TSA had agreed to conduct anti-discrimination training and to stop the practice of searching women simply because of their natural hair.

According to the press release posted on the ACLU’s North California site:

The agreement stipulates that the agency will conduct trainings for TSA agents throughout the country, with special emphasis on hair pat-downs of black female travelers. TSA also committed to monitor all the airports the agency oversees for consistent implementation of TSA and DHS policies and to detect the existence of a racially discriminatory impact.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/tsa-black-women-hair-airport-screening/feed/0TSA-black-women-hairthegrioCousins arrested for allegedly trying to join ISIS and plotting attack in UShttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/cousins-arrested-for-allegedly-trying-to-join-isis-and-plotting-attack-in-us/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/27/cousins-arrested-for-allegedly-trying-to-join-isis-and-plotting-attack-in-us/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 11:28:45 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250146CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois Army National Guard soldier vowed to bring “the flames of war to the heart” of America if he was unable to get to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group, and his cousin …]]>

CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois Army National Guard soldier vowed to bring “the flames of war to the heart” of America if he was unable to get to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group, and his cousin bragged he could kill up to 150 people in a terrorist attack in the U.S., federal prosecutors said Thursday in announcing the men’s arrests. Both are also accused of hatching a plot to attack a U.S. military facility.

Hasan R. Edmonds, the 22-year-old guardsman, was arrested Wednesday evening at Chicago Midway International Airport trying to board a plane on the first leg of a journey to Egypt. Jonas M. Edmonds, 29, was detained a few hours later at home, the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago said. Both men are U.S. citizens from suburban Aurora.

An unsealed federal complaint says the plan was for Jonas Edmonds to carry out an attack in the U.S. after Hasan Edmonds left the country, donning Hasan’s uniform to gain better access to soldiers. The complaint says they plotted an armed attack against a U.S. military facility in northern Illinois where Hasan Edmonds had trained. The complaint did not name the facility.

A spokesman for the Illinois National Guard, Lt. Col. Brad Leighton, said Hasan Edmonds was member of Golf Company 634th Brigade Support Battalion, based in Joliet.

In Internet messages to an undercover FBI agent in January, Hasan Edmonds said that if he was unable to make it to the Middle East, he would help bring “the flames of war to the heart” of America and “cause as much damage and mayhem as possible,” the complaint says.

On Tuesday, the cousins drove to a military installation with an undercover agent to discuss an attack, according to the complaint. Hasan Edmonds described the rooms inside and talked about which ones should be hit.

In other messages, Hasan said his knowledge of the U.S. military and American psychology would prove helpful in terrorizing Americans, prosecutors contend.

“If we can break their spirits, we will win,” he said, according to the complaint.

He allegedly spoke admiringly of the terrorist attack in Paris on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

“Honestly, we would love to do something like the brother in Paris did,” he allegedly wrote.

Both men face a count of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State. The conspiracy includes their alleged terrorist plots in the U.S. A conviction carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence.

They made initial appearances in a courtroom in Chicago later Thursday. Jonas Edmonds kept swiveling in his chair, stroking his beard and, at one point, yawned loudly. Hasan Edmonds sat still.

Hasan Edmonds’ sister, Manchinique Bates, told the Chicago Sun-Times, “They aren’t terrorists. … Just because they choose to worship as Muslims does not make them terrorists.”

Jonas Edmonds allegedly communicated to an undercover agent that it may be difficult for him to get travel documents. Therefore, he said he would stage attacks in the U.S. using AK-47s to kill up to 150 people, prosecutors allege.

If he couldn’t secure guns, he said he would use anything he could get his hands on, the complaint says.

“I can unleash a lion,” he says. “What I would need … honestly nothing. I am prepared to go even if it’s with a rock.”

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said Thursday he was briefed about the investigation Wednesday. He provided no further details.

Hasan Edmonds wasn’t on active duty, so any criminal allegation will be addressed by civilian federal authorities, said Leighton, the Illinois National Guard spokesman.

Leighton said Hasan Edmonds reported to the Joliet base one weekend a month and that he did two weeks of active duty training — typically in the summer. Hasan Edmonds enlisted in 2011, but had never deployed. He worked as a supply specialist that was part of a logistics unit providing supplies and other services to the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Leighton said.

Bernstein has since apologized for the exchange, in which he continued to make reference to Cristal’s physique.

“I’m an idiot,” Bernstein said. “There are certain times when you can be childish and crass and there are other times when it’s just really stupid to be a child. My tweet was childish, my tweet was crass and unnecessary and I’m sorry I dragged an innocent person into it who’s doing a job and I made an observation I shouldn’t have made, and it was childish and silly and stupid.”

He went on to later say, “My words are my responsibility and my words were stupid. And there’s nobody else to blame for any difficulties that I might be going through because of my stupidity. It’s entirely on me. And I own it. And I wish I would’ve had a second thought about sending it, and I’m learning my lesson about what is appropriate, what is inappropriate to say, and I feel bad about it.”

Speigel has also apologized for his role in the sexist conversation, saying, “My initial tweet was about a reporter’s on air presence & work. I stand by that; fair game. I regret the exchange thereafter as it devolved.”

He also added, “I missed an opportunity to keep the subject on point, & stay respectful. I’m sorry for that on many levels, & sad I offended Aiyana & others.”

According to OWN, “Karrueche shares her deeply personal story following her recent high-profile breakup with the singer after he allegedly fathered a child with another woman.”

In an interview with theGrio, Iyanla discussed details of her interview with Karrueche and set the record straight on a recent TMZ report that said Brown’s ex-girlfriend “kicked Oprah’s people” out of her home.

Watch a clip from Iyanla’s interview with Karrueche below:

theGrio: Iyanla, what made you want to do this exclusive interview with Karrueche Tran?

Iyanla: She asked. My understanding was that when the story broke, I think our producers just made a call to find out if she would be interested to having a healing conversation, and she said yes. Of course because it was a hot topic, everyone wants the exclusive, but she gave it to us. It was about having a healing conversation.

When you say the story broke, you’re referring to the story of Chris Brown being a father?

Yes, whatever lead to their breakup. What I’m understanding is when the story broke about him being a father and everyone wanted to talk to Karrueche… my understanding is they were still in a relationship at that time.

Without giving too much away, how much do you think Chris Brown being a father played a part in the demise in their relationship?

I don’t really know. What I learned in preparing for the interview was that there had been several acts of betrayal. See for me, this wasn’t even about Karrueche and Chris Brown. It was about hundreds and thousands of young women who make classic repetitive errors and unproductive unhealthy relationships with men. Karrueche represented those women for me. So I was really delighted to be able to hear her side of the story and talk to her about some broader possibilities.

How much of Rihanna, and the saga around Rihanna, would you say impacts Chris Brown’s dealings in relationships with other woman?

I don’t think anybody can be held accountable or responsible for anyone’s behaviors expect the individual. This goes beyond that particular situation. It goes beyond Rihanna, because following Rihanna, there were bar fights, there were street fights, there were violations of probation, there was anger management. To me, just like Karrueche represents hundreds of thousands of young woman, Chris Brown represents hundreds of thousands of young men who are unaccountable for their behavior.

You sat down with Karrueche. Did you try and reach out to Chris Brown’s team? Do you have plans to sit down with him and talk to him?

I didn’t personally; my understanding is that my production team did reach out to his publicists or management team and they were not interested in having the conversation. That’s my first hand information that is what was reported to me when I asked would he be willing to sit down.

Do you have a desire personally to sit down with him?

I have a desire to support anyone that wants to grow and heal and learn. If he wants to grow and heal and learn, it wouldn’t matter if his name was Chris Brown, Brown Chris, Black, Curtis — it don’t matter. But if he is not willing to grow and heal and learn, my desire means absolutely nothing… he’s gotta want it, in other words.

Did domestic violence play a factor at all in Chris Brown’s relationship with Karrueche?

Not to my awareness; we never talked about that at all. I never heard her say anything about that. Domestic violence doesn’t just have to be physical, it can be emotional, it can be spiritual, it can be psychological; violence in general is not just physical. From what I spoke to Karrueche about, there was never any physical violence between them.

Do you think there was emotional or mental abuse towards Karrueche?

In that particular relationship, betrayal of trust, violation of confidence played a factor. One of the things I asked her that was never really clear to me was, what was the nature of your relationship? What were the agreements in your relationship? It’s quite possible that Chris had one idea of what the relationship was and she had another. ‘Were y’all committed, were y’all monogamous, were y’all one-on-one?’ I really didn’t know. But if they were, if they had agreements and commitments in the relationship, and these agreements and commitments were violated… if trust was violated, if boundaries were violated, if promises were broken… yes, I do believe that is a form of emotional, psychological abuse.

TMZposted a story about your interview with Karrueche. They said that basically the interview had to stop at a certain point because Karrueche was uncomfortable and you and the OWN team were asked to leave the house. Can you set the record straight on that?

That’s not true. Let me set the record straight. Her management was not happy with the line of questioning because… if I’m going to support you in healing growing and learning, I gotta ask the hard questions. It was her management — it was not Karrueche. I left the house… they never put me out. Once outside, I asked to have a conversation with Karrueche, because I wanted to know her desire. And we, between the two of us, we decided that’s what we’re going to do. The headline didn’t say, “Karrueche Tran ends interview with Iyanla,” the headline said, “Karrueche Tran throws Oprah’s people out.” I’m not an “Oprah’s people.” So that story was totally false; we were not put out. I left, and then Karrueche and I spoke, and we went back into the interview.

Ultimately, what did Karrueche want to accomplish with this interview?

She wanted people to hear her voice. Her experience was that, as the result to her relationship with Chris and as a result of many of the things that were said by her and about her on social media, that people had the wrong idea of who she was. That she was putting up with bad behavior because she wanted an opportunity from him. That she was either unintelligent or irresponsible in going in and out of the relationship, and there were just some things that she wanted to say personally. Again, the blessing and the grace is because of who she was in a relationship with, people would listen. But there are hundreds of thousands of young women who go through that exact same scenario and never get to have their side of the story told. For me, it was more about a demonstration of what not to do and what to do and how to heal from it when you do it.

We heard that OWN is doing the spin off with Jay Williams. What do you hope is accomplished with this series on Jay Williams?

Well you know, it started prior to Jay Williams when Ms. Winfrey and I did two shows on fatherless sons and two shows on daddyless daughters. So this has been an issue for me for a while. Jay had 34 children, but if you saw any of the follow-ups, we found men with 26, 28, 25, 21 and not in relationships. My hope is that Jay will be a demonstration and the work that I will be able to do with him and that he will do will be a demonstration. This is about building relationships, about powerful and positive parenting, and it’s about us being able to see the damage that we cause when we don’t build healthy relationships and when we don’t do positive parenting.

Will he see you on the show?

Oh absolutely, I’m his coach. The only reason I agreed to have anything to do with the Jay Williams project is if it were directed towards healing, and he agreed. This is not the Jay Williams show; this is Jay Williams as a demonstration for hundreds and thousands of fathers.

Be sure to tune in for Iyanla Exclusive: Karrueche Tran Saturday at 8/7c on the OWN.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/iyanla-vanzant-karrueche-tran/feed/0Karrueche TranwitherspooncKirk Franklin slams Creflo Dollar for having a ‘shortage of character’ after private jet campaignhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/kirk-franklin-creflo-dollar-private-jet/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/kirk-franklin-creflo-dollar-private-jet/#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 16:01:07 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250099]]>Weeks ago, Creflo Dollar made a simple request to his followers: he wanted 200,000 people to donate at least $300 each so that his ministry could purchase a Gulfstream 650 private jet that costs about $65 million. The mega-church leader called it Project G650.

Today, the Atlanta-based pastor has been caught up in a firestorm of criticism for his enterprising request.

When a pastor wants people to buy him a private plane while a missionary in Somalia bathes children with sores, that’s a shortage of character. When I camouflage my “greeds” to look like “needs,” that’s a shortage of character. When young students are comfortable enough to sing racial slurs on a bus while furthering their education to someday lead a corporation that may have minorities apply for jobs, that’s a shortage of character…

According to police, the officers were watching the area because it had a high drug rate.

They noticed Dent’s car and followed it, turning on their lights when Dent did not come to a full stop at a stop sign. They claim Dent did not immediately pull over.

Watch the traffic stop in its entirety below:

“When the overhead lights came on, I looked and said, ‘Wow, are they stopping me?’” Dent said. “So I just kept going until I realized that they were really stopping me. The next thing I know, the officer runs up to me with his gun, you know, talking about blowing my head off. Then he grabbed me out of the car and started beating on me, you know. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Watch a full news report on the traffic stop below:

The accounts given by Dent and the officers involved differ widely.

Officers say Dent refused to put his hands behind his back. Dent says he needed to use his arms to pull the officers’ arms away from his throat so he could breathe.

“I’m lucky to be living,” Dent said. “I think they was trying to kill me, especially when they had choked me.”

Police say Dent shouted “I’ll kill you” at the officers, but there is no audio of such a threat. One officer says Dent bit him, but there is no evidence of bite marks or medical treatment for the bite.

Police say they found a bag of crack cocaine on the scene. Dent says the bag was planted, and one of the officers involved had previously been charged but not convicted of planting evidence and falsifying records.

“I don’t have to sell drugs. I don’t sell drugs,” Dent said.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/man-beaten-chokehold-police-traffic-stop/feed/0Floyd-DentthegrioUber driver says he was assaulted by passenger, called ‘N-Word’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/uber-driver-assaulted-professor-n-word-slavery/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/uber-driver-assaulted-professor-n-word-slavery/#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 15:24:21 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250092]]>Chiddi Stober was just doing his job, working part-time as an Uber driver, when a passenger refused to get out of the car and assaulted him, leading Stober to call 9-1-1.

“It was just getting from bad to worse and that is just when I needed to call 911,” Stober explained.

The audio of the 9-1-1 call revealed that the passenger, a Kennesaw State University professor, repeatedly called Stober the N-word.

“Go back to slavery, man,” the passenger says.

Watch a full report on the assault below:

“The customer just damaged my vehicle!” Stober exclaims. “The customer is assaulting me, the customer is assaulting me… He just punched me in the face.”

Later, Stober said of the incident, “I couldn’t understand why a person who doesn’t even know me could be using such kind of language.”

While Stober said that the man worked as a lecturer at KSU, where he taught business, the passenger has not been publicly identified because he has not yet been charged, though Dunwoody police are looking into the matter.

Jill Polster, the passenger’s attorney, issued a statement of apology on his behalf.

“The recording speaks for itself. When made aware off the statements made by him as heard on the recorder, (her client) was mortified,” the statement said. “He is deeply ashamed and sorry for the derogatory language he used towards Mr. Stober during the episode.”

After the family won a lawsuit against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke for the hit song’s musical similarities to “Got to Give It Up,” a new fight began over how to split the $7.4 million payout.

The Daily Mailreports Gaye’s sisters, Zeola and Jeanne Gaye, are now claiming that they have been blocked from receiving any of the money from the suit or from Gaye’s musical legacy.

They also claim they have been banned from performing any of their brother’s music, despite Zeola having performed the actual line in dispute in “Got to Give It Up.”

Marvin Gaye’s wife Jan and their three children, Marvin III, 49, Nona, 40 and Frankie, 39, have sole control over the $7.4 million, as well as all royalties from Gaye’s music.

“I am tired about the negativity. I am trying to be as positive as I can and trying to make some money for myself,” Zeola said. “There is nothing wrong with that. Marvin is in our blood and he loved us. But we have to do the 8am-5pm thing to keep going. Our heads are a little above water. It is hard to take when you know your brother’s work is making a fortune and will for a very long time.”

Zeola, who is a retired bookkeeper, went on to explain why the fortune was so divided:

Marvin didn’t leave a will and his estate went to his heirs which we agree with. But Jan controls it all and that’s why we do not get anything. The bottom line is that they get everything and we don’t get a dime. We try and live with that, but it is difficult.

Jules’ mother, Latoya Gore, was furious, according to a New York Daily News report.

“I want to know why the children weren’t supervised,” Gore told the paper Wednesday. “And I want the eighth-graders disciplined.”

Gore said she initially got a call that her daughter “hit her head on a table,” but later learned of a “fight club” from another parent.

Watch a video clip of the alleged attack below:

She grew suspicious and went to Jules’ school PS 111 in Queens, New York, demanding to see surveillance footage of the attack.

School officials only showed a small clip of the attack, but Gore wants to see the entire 30-minute footage.

Gore returned to Jules’ school Wednesday, claiming she will be suing the city for $5.5 million.

“It is despicable that the school authorities attempted to cover up this incident by lying to Ms. Gore as to how her daughter was truly hurt,” Gore’s lawyer, Scott Rynecki, said. “There was a clear lack of supervision so as to allow these first-grade children to be assaulted in a fight club type of atmosphere.”

Sadly, other victims have also come forward.

Attorney Pamela S. Roth is representing 6-year-olds Khamani Moore and Heaven Morris. Morris was ordered to “slam [a boy] to the ground” but refused to do so.

Education Department spokesman Jason Fink has since come forward to say, “What was depicted in that video is completely unacceptable.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/video-captures-8th-grade-tutors-attacking-7-year-old-for-not-joining-fight-club/feed/01st-Grader-Beaten-8th-GradersthegrioSAE frat boy who led racist chant met with black leaders to apologizehttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/sae-frat-racist-chant-apology/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/sae-frat-racist-chant-apology/#commentsThu, 26 Mar 2015 12:03:44 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250060OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former University of Oklahoma fraternity member caught on video leading a racist chant said Wednesday he’s deeply sorry for his role in the incident and upset and embarrassed that he failed to stop it.

The …

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A former University of Oklahoma fraternity member caught on video leading a racist chant said Wednesday he’s deeply sorry for his role in the incident and upset and embarrassed that he failed to stop it.

The incident caused a national uproar and threw an unwelcome spotlight on fraternities — male social clubs that are a fixture at many American universities — that have recently been under fire over issues like sexual assault and race issues.

Flanked by several black Oklahoma City community leaders, including pastors and civil rights activists, Levi Pettit publicly apologized following a meeting he had with civic leaders at a Baptist Church on the city’s predominantly black northeast side.

“Some have wondered why I hadn’t spoken out publicly. The truth is I have had a mix of pain, shame, sorrow and fear over the consequences of my actions,” said Pettit, whose voice quivered slightly as he spoke. “I did not want to apologize to the press or to the whole country until I first came to apologize to those most directly impacted.”

Pettit and several other members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the university were caught on video engaging in the chant that referenced lynching and used a racial slur to describe how African-Americans would never become members.

Pettit answered a few questions from reporters but declined to say who taught him the chant or where he learned it.

“The truth is what was said in that chant is disgusting … and after meeting with these people I’ve learned these words should never be repeated,” Pettit said.

State Sen. Anastasia Pittman, who coordinated Wednesday’s meeting after Pettit reached out to her, said she believes Pettit’s apology is genuine and she has forgiven him.

“I admire his courage of reaching out to me and saying: ‘I want to meet with you face to face and apologize to you directly,'” said Pittman. “I believe he is sincere.”

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/26/sae-frat-racist-chant-apology/feed/0SAE-frat-Levi-Pettit-apologydwilson1911Rihanna breaks down the impact of her 42 million Twitter followers, the ‘Rihanna Navy’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/rihanna-navy-home-steve-martin-jim-parsons/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/rihanna-navy-home-steve-martin-jim-parsons/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 20:06:01 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250037]]>Rihanna is making her animated film debut in DreamWorks’ new feature, Home.

The film’s plot revolves around a lovable alien on the run from his own people, who lands on Earth and makes friends with Tip, who is on a quest of her own.

In an interview with theGrio, Rihanna and her co-stars weighed in on the impact of the Rihanna’s massive 42 million strong Twitter following.

Rihanna, who’s among Twitter’s top 10 most-followed members, has a strong, loyal fan base who call themselves the “Rihanna Navy.”

“They’re pretty crazy. It’s just the name my fan base pretty much gave themselves,” Rihanna said of her navy.

“I think whatever I do I hope my fans love. I always try to keep them in mind, but this was especially for my younger fans,” she added. “I was excited about doing something that they could really enjoy and feel like they could be a part of, because some of them don’t even get to come to my show. This for sure is something that they can be excited about. This is theirs… but all of my fans want to see this movie. They’re so excited about the animation.”

“I try to appeal to my younger fans, but they’re in their 50’s,” Martin later joked.

Rihanna’s character, Tip, drives a space-age automobile throughout much of “Home.” Parsons, Martin and Rihanna later shared their craziest real-life experiences behind the wheel.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/rihanna-navy-home-steve-martin-jim-parsons/feed/0Rihanna HomewitherspooncDeadline editor likes blacks on TV so long as it’s not ‘too much’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/deadline-blacks-tv-too-much/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/deadline-blacks-tv-too-much/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 20:05:31 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250042Deadline’s article Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings – About Time or Too Much of Good Thing poses the question of whether white actors are somehow losing out on roles as networks scramble to cash in on the success …]]>Deadline’s article Pilots 2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings – About Time or Too Much of Good Thing poses the question of whether white actors are somehow losing out on roles as networks scramble to cash in on the success of “ethnic” shows like How to Get Away with Murder, Scandal, Fresh off the Boat and Empire. In framing her argument, the author, who happens to be the site’s TV editor Nellie Andreeva, completely contradicts herself.

On the one hand, she asserts that “the pendulum might have swung a bit too far in the opposite direction … instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year, making them off-limits for Caucasian actors.”

On the other hand, she asserts, “While they are among the most voracious and loyal TV viewers, African-Americans still represent only 13% of the U.S. population. They were grossly underserved, but now, with shows as Empire, Black-ish, Scandal and HTGAWM on broadcast, Tyler Perry’s fare on OWN and Mara Brock Akil’s series on BET, they have scripted choices, so the growth in that fraction of the TV audience might have reached its peak.”

You can’t have it both ways in the quota game. You can’t argue against a quota for actors citing merit as your reasoning and then say that there may need to be a quota for black shows based on the percentage of blacks in the U.S. A quota is a quota, no matter how you slice it.

The flawed internal logic of the article undergirds my suspicion that the article was meant to inflame and polarize more than inform, so I will take this opportunity to add some information that the article omits.

Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and The Cosby Show are not “black” shows. Just because the shows were created by blacks, include black writers and showcase black talent as the lead doesn’t make them “black” shows. The insinuation is that shows that have a black presence at any level of prominence somehow will only appeal to a black audience, which is patently false.

Even shows that have a predominately black cast and deal with issues related to black life and culture like Empire and Black-ish still deal with universal issues that are prevalent in American culture that go far beyond the scope of race and ethnicity. These types of shows have the ability to appeal to anyone, regardless of race.

The television business is just that, a business, and very much a copycat business at that, so let’s not pretend that executives are making casting decisions by engaging their moral compasses. They are going to do what makes them money, and according to this current trend, it seems that they are finally finding out that diversity can feed the bottom line.

The best way to influence Hollywood’s decision-making is to utilize the only two things that America understands – money and votes. Watch the shows you like and buy the products they’re selling. It’s that simple.

In the wake of this article, the black community should not concern ourselves with justifying our place at the media table in the name of diversity. Our place doesn’t need to be defended. However, in light of this supposed broadcast bonanza, we should be concerned with a different type of diversity. As more and more blacks earn and are afforded the opportunities to create, write, direct and star in this new world of media, we should strive to make sure that the stories that we are telling and the characters that we are portraying are fully representative of the full breadth and depth of the black lives, in particular, and the American lives, in general, that we embody.

When the images of non-whites are equally as diverse (socioeconomic education, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) as the images of whites — in essence mirroring the plural society that we live in — there will no doubt be an economic benefit to the bottom line of broadcasters and a residual benefit to the country as a whole: less polarization.

Andre Kimo Stone Guess is a contributing writer for theGrio.com and cultural critic. He is a former CEO of the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh and former VP and Producer for Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. Follow him on Twitter – @aeducatedguess and visit his blog at aeducatedguess.com

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/deadline-blacks-tv-too-much/feed/0network-tv-diversitydwilson1911Tamar Braxton breaks down on ‘The Real': ‘Do I look like a muppet?’http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/tamar-braxton-muppet-the-real/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/tamar-braxton-muppet-the-real/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 18:43:16 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250038]]>Tamar Braxton broke down in tears Wednesday during a special bullying segment on The Real.

The show’s co-host, Jeannie Mai, asked Braxton what advice she has for others to help cope or respond directly to bullies. Braxton, whose son Logan turns two in June, immediately began to cry.

“I don’t have any advice to give my son because,” Braxton said before trailing off. Then, Braxton revealed that a “particular person” said she looked like a muppet, and the insult still stings to this day.

“People say it so much, sometimes I start to believe it,” Braxton cried. “I even ask my friends: ‘Do I look like a muppet?'”

The tennis superstar teamed up with Vogue to created her own version of Beyoncé’s hit “7/11″ music video, and it is taking the internet by storm.

In the YouTube video, Williams plays some tennis and shows off some dance moves, even spinnin’ with her foot up:

Watch Serena’s version of the Beyoncé hit below:

The 19-time Grand Slam Champion displays her fun personality, rocking a Cookie Monster onesie and riding around in a golf cart with her dog riding shogun.

I think I speak for most when I say, “Girl, I’m tryna to kick it with ya.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/serena-williams-711-video-beyonce/feed/0Serena-WilliamscarriehealsFamily questions police account in fatal shooting of 25-year-old Nicholas Thomashttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/family-questions-police-account-in-fatal-shooting-of-25-year-old-nicholas-thomas/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/family-questions-police-account-in-fatal-shooting-of-25-year-old-nicholas-thomas/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 16:21:53 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=250004]]>Family members and eyewitnesses are questioning Georgia police officers’ accounts of what led to the fatal shooting of Nicholas Thomas this week.

The Smyrna officers who were involved said they feared for their lives because Thomas was driving a white Maserati “directly at them.”

The officers arrived at Goodyear Tire where Thomas worked to serve an arrest warrant for a probation violation. Thomas then entered his vehicle and sped at them, officers said.

“When you go to serve a suspect who knows that he is wanted, he is unpredictable and we have to react based on his actions,” said Sgt. Ed Cason with the Smyrna Police Department.

Watch a full report on the shooting death of Nicholas Thomas below:

At least one witness, a customer at the Goodyear, has disputed their version of events.

“They were standing behind the car, opening fire,” Brittany Eustache said. “[Thomas] wasn’t driving towards them. The car was not moving when they began to shoot at him. The car had been stopped. He hit a curb. He couldn’t go any further.

Thomas’ mother Felicia told WSBTV her son recently became a father.

“He was a lovable guy,” she said. “He was just a lovable guy. He would do anything for everybody. He was just loved cars. He loved his family. He just had a baby. His baby is not even 5 months old.”

Investigators looking into how many of the six officers on scene actually opened fire.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/family-questions-police-account-in-fatal-shooting-of-25-year-old-nicholas-thomas/feed/0Nicholas-Thomas-2thegrioBradley Cooper wants to direct Beyoncé in ‘A Star Is Born’ remakehttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/bradley-cooper-beyonce-star-is-born-remake/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/bradley-cooper-beyonce-star-is-born-remake/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 15:53:50 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=249996]]>Bradley Cooper is currently in talks with Warner Bros. to make his directorial debut in the remake of A Star is Born.

After a double Oscar nomination from American Sniper, Cooper is looking to sink his teeth into new opportunities. It looks like he will try his hand at the script alongside Will Fetters, and he will be producing with Todd Phillips. Jon Peters, Billy Gerber and Basil Iwanyk.

Other leading men that Warner Bros. has considered have included the likes of Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale. Beyonce had been considering the lead female part back when Clint Eastwood was slated to direct, with Cooper as the male lead, and throughout the process of finalizing this film, her name has most often been mentioned for the lead female role.

A Star is Born was first seen as a 1937 film starring Fredrick March and Janet Gaynor, and Warner Bros. tried its hand at the classic in 1954 with Judy Garland and James Mason. 1976 saw a remake with Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand, so it’s high time that this generation saw their version of this timeless tale.

TV writer Nellie Andreeva penned the article“Pilots 2015: The Year Of Ethnic Castings – About Time Or Too Much Of Good Thing?” which was supposed to be her clever take on the growing trend of minority casting.

Amdreeva claims that success of new series, including How To Get Away With Murder, Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat, Jane the Virgin and Empire, will open doors for even more “ethnic castings” this year.

“The pendulum might have swung a bit too far in the opposite direction,” she writes. “Instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year.”

“Because of the sudden flood of roles for ethnic actors after years of suppressed opportunities for them, the talent pool of experienced minority performers — especially in the younger range — is pretty limited,” Andreeva added. “That has led to a feeding frenzy, with a number of straight offers locking in ethnic talent before they could be snatched by another pilot. Replacing one set of rigid rules with another by imposing a quota of ethnic talent on each show might not be the answer.”

Needless to say, the response on social media to Andreeva’s article was fast and furious, with many outraged by her poorly articulated essay about a breakout era in TV.

“1st Reaction:: HELL NO. Lemme take off my earrings, somebody hold my purse! 2nd Reaction: Article is so ignorant I can’t even be bothered,” Shonda Rhimes wrote on Twitter.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/shonda-rhimes-ava-duvernay-deadline-ethnic-tv/feed/0Shonda Rhimes and AvawitherspooncTexas man owes $21K in child support for kid that DNA proves isn’t hishttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/man-child-support-dna-legal-battle/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/man-child-support-dna-legal-battle/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 14:37:13 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=249991]]>A Houston man has fought a court decision for over a decade that requires him to pay child support for a child that DNA proves is not is.

Thirteen years ago, Willie Carson’s ex-girlfriend put his name on the record as the father of her child. Despite the fact that DNA tests later proved that Carson could not possibly be the father, he was still on record as being responsible for child support.

“I’ve never seen the child,” Carson told MyFoxHouston. “I never spoke to the child. I don’t know what the child looks like.”

Watch a full report on Willie Carson’s court battle below:

Carson has struggled to pay the child support while he fought for years to stop the child support collection. “There were days that I didn’t eat. I went without electricity,” he said.

But now, he can see the “light at the end of the tunnel.” Recently, he received a letter that said he no longer had to pay child support and that his 401K funds were unfrozen; the letter came shortly after the child’s mother wrote a letter to the court saying he was not the father and should not have to pay child support.

However, he still has to pay the back money owed, to the tune of $21,000.

Carson is hoping to see the end of this legal battle soon, but he will be returning to court Monday.

“Yes I’m hoping for it but the judge has the last say so,” he said.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/man-child-support-dna-legal-battle/feed/0Willie CarsonthegrioLeToya Luckett weighs in on Destiny’s Child biopic: The story must be told the right wayhttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/letoya-luckett-destinys-child-biopic-single-ladies/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/letoya-luckett-destinys-child-biopic-single-ladies/#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 13:00:17 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=249959]]>LeToya Luckett is hotter than ever. She’s currently starring in season 4 of Centric’s Single Ladies and recently landed a principle role in the upcoming NBC pilot Love Is a Four Letter Word.

Luckett has found success as a TV actress at a time when networks are embracing black actors seemingly more than ever.

In an interview with theGrio she discussed the growing number of TV series featuring black actresses, including Scandal, Empire, How to Get Away with Murder, Being Mary Jane and Single Ladies, and said that she hopes that the influx of black actresses in Hollywood is not a trend.

“I hope that this lasts for a very long time. I hope that it’s not a trend,” she said. “It should never be a trend. I think that everyone, all races, all genders, should be able to play leads. Now networks aren’t afraid to take that chance on a leading lady of other ethnicities. I thank the networks for opening up to that.”

Watch our interview with LeToya Luckett below:

She also weighed on the similarities between the cut-throat music executive she plays on Single Ladies and Taraji P. Henson’s role as Cookie on Empire.

“I love Taraji’s character… what she did with that. I’m so proud of her and everything that she’s doing with the show. I think that the two characters both have this Type A personality. They’re dominators, both of them. They’re women of power. Cookie has her way of doing things. Might be a little bit more street than Felicia, but they can cut you with the tongue. Don’t get in their way.”

Earlier this year, news broke of plans for two possible Destiny’s Child biopics: a film that Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles proposed to Sony Pictures and a rumored Lifetime biopic.

Luckett, who was an original member of the chart-topping girl group, talked at length about the possibility of a Destiny’s Child biopic.

“I feel like there’s so many versions of that story. You’ve got like five people in that situation. So I think that as long as something like that is done with respect, and it celebrates all of us and doesn’t tear any of us down… That’s fine. As long as it’s done the right way.”

“People love a secret, and people love finding out the secret. We’re all very secretive, we’re all very private about our private lives and that situation,” Luckett added. “If a movie is done about it… okay. but I would want to celebrate all of us, because we were kids. You gotta tell that story in a certain way because you’re dealing with kids. Some of us got in that group at 8 or 9-years-old. So… careful.”

Catch and all new episode of Single Ladies tonight at 10/9c on Centric.

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/25/letoya-luckett-destinys-child-biopic-single-ladies/feed/0LeToya Lucket and Destiny's Childwitherspoonc‘Hate Map’ shows where the most hate groups are in Americahttp://thegrio.com/2015/03/24/hate-map-shows-where-the-most-hate-groups-are-in-america/
http://thegrio.com/2015/03/24/hate-map-shows-where-the-most-hate-groups-are-in-america/#commentsTue, 24 Mar 2015 23:09:40 +0000http://thegrio.com/?p=249903]]>The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released a “Hate Map” that shows where active hate groups are throughout the country. Every single state except Alaska and Hawaii had at least one active group, but California had the most.

The SPLC defined a hate group this way: “All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” Such groups included but were not limited to: the KKK, Neo-Nazis, white nationalists, racist skinheads, Christian Identity, Neo-Confederates, black separatists and general hate groups.

“Websites appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather than the publication of a group, are not included in this list,” the organization wrote. “Listing here does not imply a group advocates or engages in violence or other criminal activity.”

California topped the list, with 57 hate groups. Florida had 50, followed by New York with 44, New Jersey with 40 and Pennsylvania with 38.

On the positive side, hate groups seem to be on the decline, with the SPLC saying, “annual count found that hate groups declined by 17% between 2013 and 2014, from 939 to 784 groups, bringing that number to its lowest level since 2005.”

]]>http://thegrio.com/2015/03/24/hate-map-shows-where-the-most-hate-groups-are-in-america/feed/0KKKthegrioHate Group Map